The Tale of Legends
by Haraat
Summary: A world where legendary pokemon have disappeared. This story starts off with a boy named Ryo, who has strong ambitions and a goal to be the best pokemon trainer. But his simple adventure does not seem to last as there is a dark force, one man who has control of all the legendaries, whose malevolence could cause the destruction of the entire world.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Remember a time, years ago, where there were legendary pokemon? Even before the catastrophe, it was not common for humans to see us. But even though it was a rare occasion, there was always a special individual who met a legendary and was able to tell the tale. Perhaps they were lucky, and found a legendary hibernating in a cave that was hidden for ages. Nonetheless, legendary pokemon were not so "legendary" after all, for they were quite well known, and furthermore, has been documented quite frequently. Many pokemon trainers may not have captured legendary pokemon, but many of them have surely seen one before in their lives. Perhaps they saw the majestic Ho-oh flying across the sunset sky, or maybe they saw the great Kyogre breaching near the coast. Whatever legendary people saw, it was an amazing sight. These short experiences with legendary pokemon is what earned us our reputation.

I am Dialga, the master of time, or as you humans call me. To speak my truth, I actually do not control time. One who wields such strength will potentially cause dangerous altercations in the world we know now. Time is not something to be toyed with! Even the great pokemon god, Arceus, doesn't have a power that amazing. However, there is much you humans need to learn about us. There are many hidden secrets about pokemon, and the boundaries between what makes people and pokemon different. Some of these secrets, if discovered, could be exploited by humans with evil hearts. Some of these secrets are far darker than what you expect. I had to find out the hard way. But to not give away too much information, I will start with the catastrophe.

Now, let me repeat my question. Remember the days where legendary pokemon could be seen all around the world? If you ask many people now, they would not know what a legendary pokemon is. Why is that? It is because they have all disappeared….in a way. There was a man, we call him the dark lord, with a great lust for power. A human. He was controlled by darkness, and had practiced an evil magic that to this day, I am still oblivious to how it works. He sought power, more specifically, the power of the legendaries. He was able to hunt each of us down, one by one, starting with the weaker legends.

No, he did not slay us. Though, it might have been better for the world. However, the dark lord had a far sinister plan in store. Instead, he had the power to control legendaries, by using Mewtwo, a artificial and genetically enhanced pokemon with great power and psychic abilities. You might have heard of a mewtwo before, but this was different. The Dark Lord created this Mewtwo for his personal gains, using dark magic to create him. Mewtwo had the power to control any pokemon, even us legendaries. With one of his moves, Mewtwo was able to turn a legendary into a mindless soldier for the dark lord, where there skin turns into the color that matches the black night. That is how we tell the difference between the corrupted and the normal legendaries. He turned them evil, and hence, these controlled legendaries would follow the dark lord. I'm hazy about when it started, but I remember the Fairies(Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, our lake guardians, Victini, etc.) were the first to go. Then, legendaries like the dog trio(Suicune, Entei, Raikou) and the three legendary birds(Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres) began missing.

At this point, Arceus began to realize something was terribly wrong. He called out to the land, seas, and sky, but it seemed that the weather trio has also disappeared. Arceus informed us about the disappearances of all the legendaries, but perhaps it was a little too late. I guarded Arceus, along with Palkia and Giratina, up above the clouds in the sky temple where the pokemon god rested. It seemed that our worst day had come upon us. The clouds turned dark that day, and the thunder roared. Without warning, rayquaza penetrated the clouds. However, it wasn't the rayquaza that was loyal to Arceus. No, it was a dark rayquaza, who was controlled by the Dark Lord. It attacked us, right then and there, desecrating the sky temple. With Arceus, the four of us fled to the grounds of Sinnoh, where a trap had been set up. It was quite shocking to see all my fellow legendaries at the top of Mount Coronet, but they were not here to help us. They were all controlled by the Dark Lord, as seen by their dark appearance.

Giratina was the first to react, in his origin form, he swiftly dove down to attack. The corrupted Kyogre shot an ice beam at Giratina, which was able to damage him and slow his descent. Without warning, a dark mewtwo, launched himself out of the crowd of legendaries and shot a large beam of dark energy at Giratina. Giratina was the god of the underworld. I was sure he wasn't going to be corrupted, but I was wrong. Giratina turned on us and was ready to attack the three of us. Palkia and I walked forward to protect Arceus. I used my signature move, Roar of Time, while Pakia used Spacial Red to stop Giratina. However, our moves were blocked by Mewtwo, as he teleported in front of Giratina with an energy field.

Arceus ordered us to fall back, and we did. Mewtwo, shot out another wave of dark energy. I nearly dodged the blast, but Palkia was struck right on the back. I could hear Palkia's struggle, as he was controlled by Mewtwo's powers. I didn't look back as I headed to Arceus. I didn't want to see Palkia turn into one of those monsters. I got to Arceus and he told me something that I couldn't help but refuse. Arceus told me that I had to escape, and he had the power to let me. I was the guardian of the pokemon god. If anything, I should sacrifice myself to save him! He told me that his mind was made, and that I would be wise to listen to my god. He released a wave of light energy around me and I felt my body absorb it. I should have asked Arceus what he did, but I was too focused on the danger at hand. I tried pleading for him to escape with me, but he was stubborn run by myself. I attempted to argue with him one last time, but he commanded that as his follower, I must obey his requests.

With that, I fled, and I was quite ashamed to do so. I should have stayed to help Arceus fight. As I was down the mountain, I saw Arceus, facing off with the Mewtwo. What shocked me was that Arceus had completely dropped his guard. It seemed that he was completely void of energy. How is that possible? Arceus, the pokemon God, had unlimited power and aura. Why was he suppressing it all in front of the enemy? It was then that Arceus closed his eyes, and I heard his voice.

There is nothing I can do. Dialga, this all depends on you, now.

Mewtwo transformed into his fighting form, and at the speed of light, shot through Arceus with a move that was so fast I didn't even see it. What I saw was the decapitated head of the pokemon god. It flew across the top of mountain. I stared wide eyed, at my god, who had just been killed.

At that point, I felt my body begin to shrink. What was happening to me? Then I remembered what Arceus did before I left. He put something, some sort of magic in me. I heard the legendaries begin to follow me. It seems that at the moment, I was the last legendary pokemon who was yet to be controlled by the dark lord. I levitated down the mountain and flew dangerously low, over the cities of the region. I knew I was breaking Arceus' rule about showing ourselves to humans, but this was not a time to worry about that. I felt myself lose energy. Something was wrong. I shrank even more. I felt my legendary powers disappear from me as I collapsed onto a large field in the middle of a forest. I kept on shrinking. My body was decreasing in size and all I could wonder was what was going on? Was I dying? Was I going to disappear from the world?

I was unconscious for a while, but I opened my eyes and found that I was lying on the soft grass and no one was around. I couldn't move for some reason. I tried struggling, but my legs felt really short and stubby. I glanced at my arm and saw what seemed to be little pudgy hands. I realized that I had turned into a human infant. I was no longer a pokemon, but a human! Strangely, I felt the presence of the corrupt legends, but they couldn't sense me anymore. The legendaries flew overhead but did not notice me. They soon left the region and I was stuck on the ground as an infant, unable to protect myself. I tried crawling, but I was too weak.

After a few minutes, I heard footsteps. Then I felt two warm hands pick me up from the ground. It was a middle aged woman. She stared at me for quite a bit, then she asked whose child I was. She looked around and there was clearly no sign of anyone else. I don't know what came over me, but I had a strong urge to cry like an infant, and I did. I weeped and weeped and the woman calmed me down by patting me on the back,

"There, there, Sweetie. I'll find your mommy and daddy." she said. Of course, this woman never found my "parents", so one thing led to another, she raised me in her own little cottage. I wanted to demand her to let me go, for I was the great Dialga, but she couldn't understand me and just laughed at me. It seems that humans are not intelligent enough for telepathy. Other than that, the woman was very caring. She fed me and gave me a place to sleep. I felt so vulnerable, yet because of this woman, I felt very safe as well.

I don't know when I started to change. Believe me, I am still grieving about the lose of my god, but I was isolated into human society for many years. I grew older like a normal human child. I began to learn their language and how they lived. It seemed like I almost forgot that I was a legendary. The only reason I remembered I was a pokemon was because I could understand other pokemon. It seems that other humans couldn't. So as year passed by, one after another, I found myself thinking less like a pokemon and more like a human. I don't think anyone has found me out yet, but my memories are still very strong. Everyday, I still think about that dreadful moment where Arceus was killed.

Soon, I had come of age to become what humans called a pokemon trainer. I was well aware of the humans' practice of forcing other pokemon to fight each other. I despised it. It was insulting to see humans take advantage of pokemon. However, as I grew up in a society that constantly had pokemon battles, my opinion began to change. I started to find the idea to be quite exciting, even though I am a pokemon myself. But like I said, I have been well adapted into human society. I might appear to have given up, but I am still very determined to save all the legendaries from their curse. They are all gone now because the dark lord keeps every one of them by his side. I've spoken with children of my age and they have never seen a legendary pokemon before. It seems that the legendary pokemon had truly become "legends". No one believed of their existence anymore. If I were to become, what the humans call, a pokemon trainer, I'll be closer to finding the person responsible for the disappearance of the legendaries.

This is where my story begins. It all started on a pokemon journey. I made very important friends along the way and they were the reason why I was able to fight back against the dark lord. My story of saving all the legendaries is very bittersweet. I gained as much as a lost, and it pained me to relive those moments. The loss of a friend that is…. Now, I will tell you the story, in third person, so my identity will not be too obvious. I'll start from the very beginning, with the start of a harmless pokemon journey.

 **Author's Note: Well, how was the introduction. This is going to be a very long story, so I hope you would begin to follow. Please comment. How do you like the story so far. Does it seem interesting?**


	2. Chapter 2: Departure

It was another bright day in the Sinnoh region. People were hustling and bustling down the streets, and it was the start of the season where many children would become new pokemon trainers. Sandgem town was crowded with children of all ages, eager to pick out a starter pokemon to begin their journey. Sandgem town was the location of the Sinnoh Professor's lab. His name was Professor Rowan, and he was going to be a very busy man on this particular day.

Outside the commotion of Sandgem town, not too far, was the location of a quiet little coast development called Twinleaf town. This was the most southern and western town in the region. It consisted of a few small houses and cottages. Unlike all the other kids who were rushing to get to Sandgem, there was a boy camping out in the midst of a tall oak tree. He had silver hair, which was a quite unusual hair color. He was able to completely conceal his presence as he watched a Starly land onto the branch right next to him.

Starlys were pokemon that had sharpened senses. It was usually the first pokemon to notice danger, and would fly away in a heartbeat. However, this boy did not make a sound. The Starly was oblivious that a human was this close to it. The boy waited as he sensed the Starly was a bit jumpy when it first landed on the tree. This was due to the fact that the Starly was a prey, and there were many pokemon that were predators of its species. The boy waited patiently as the Starly began to relax. He saw the way the Starly loosened its posture and and sank its talons deeper into the tree branch that it was letting its guard down.

There was no moment to spare. As the boy saw the perfect timing, he sprang out of his hiding spot on the tree. The Starly was caught off guard and tried to fly away, but the boy was fast and grabbed a hold of the pokemon's feet.

"I caught you!" shouted the boy in excitement as he jumped down from the tree, dragging the Starly down with him by his feet. The boy landed on the ground in such a way that he was quickly able to spring up and stop the Starly from flying away. He held the bird pokemon between his hands as it tried to struggle and escape.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." Said the boy as he took the Starly with him and sprinted down towards his home in Twinleaf town.

The boy arrived at his family cottage and burst through the door. "Hey, Aunt Melissa! I caught a pokemon with my own bare hands!"

A woman dress in red walked down the stairs and saw the boy holding a struggling Starly in his hands. Shocked, she ran up to him and said, "What...What did you do, Ryo? It was a figure of speech. I didn't want you to actually catch a pokemon with your bare hands!" exclaimed the woman.

"But, Aunt Melissa. You said that I can't go on this journey until I show you I am capable of catching pokemon." said Ryo.

"Look, I know you are eager to go out and see the world, but it is never too late to do so. There are many dangerous people out there, like hostile wild pokemon and robbers, you don't know what you will bump into alone." said Aunt Melissa with worry.

"Most kids have already started their journey. I'm twelve right now. That's old enough. I even have my first pokemon right here!" said the boy as he pointed at the Starly in his hands. The Starly had given up his struggle and was now resting within the warmth of Ryo's hand.

"Well, you have to pick a starter pokemon down at Sandgem Town. Today is the day they are giving out starters and letting children apply to become a licensed trainer. The Professor's lab is going to close within an hour, so there is no way for you to make it in time. So either way, you have to wait another year." said Aunt Melissa.

"What! I have to go there to register as a trainer! Why didn't you tell me this sooner." said Ryo as he tried to dash out the door. His aunt grabbed him by the arm.

"Stop it, Ryo. I'm not going to let you run there just so you could cram in your registration at the last second. I gave you my final word. You will not start your journey this year." said Aunt Melissa sternly.

"Aunt Melissa, I waited so long to start this journey. I watch the pokemon outside our house everyday. I learn a lot from them. I have this connection with them that you don't understand. I really want to raise my own pokemon and battle with other people. I always found pokemon battling to be so interesting. Why can't you just let me go for once. You were always so overprotective." said Ryo.

Aunt Melissa was about to say something back, but she was swayed by the innocent and determined look in the child's eye. He continued. "You always told me great stories about my parents. You said how they went out on their adventure at a very young age. You told me how they were top of the league trainers who made it to worlds. Even you were a pokemon trainer when you were young."

Aunt Melissa looked out the window and sighed. "Yes, I know I've told you those stories, but those stories were meant to ease your curiosity, not make you more determined to go on your own journey. You're all I have, and I don't want you getting hurt. I just don't know what I will do without you."

"Aunt Melissa, I just want to be like my parents and start my journey. I want to be the best trainer there is!" said Ryo.

"You remind me of the way I thought when I was a child. I also believed I could be the best trainer when I was your age. But dreams are what they are made to be, _dreams._ And it is far from what the world would allow you to become." said Aunt Melissa.

"I understand that, but I still want to explore it! I appreciate all that you did for me. I know I never really knew my parents, because they died when I was very young, but you were always there for me. I thank you for that. But now, I want to see the world for myself. But, that doesn't mean I will never come back and visit you." reassured Ryo.

Aunt Melissa tried thinking it over in her head. "Okay. No, you're right, Ryo. I shouldn't keep you here any longer. You seem to really have a passion for pokemon." she said as she saw Ryo playing with the Starly. She was quite surprised that the Starly no longer wanted to run from him. It was only with Ryo for a few minutes and was already getting attached to the boy.

Ryo stopped playing with the Starly and looked up at his Aunt. "Really? You're going to allow me to go?" he asked.

Aunt Melissa hesitated for a while and answered, "Yes."

"Yay!" shouted Ryo in happiness as he ran up and hugged her Aunt tightly.

After a long hug, Aunt Melissa pulled away and said, "Hey! You have to always remember to write me a letter about your journey every week. That is the condition."

"Sure. Easy." said Ryo as he ran in the kitchen to grab a bag with all he needs for his journey.

"You had all that prepared?" asked Aunt Melissa.

"Yep. I told you. I'm very excited about this day." said Ryo. They stood there staring at each other for a second, and then Ryo went in for another hug with his Aunt. After that final hug, Ryo turned and shouted, "Love you, Aunt Melissa! I promise I'll visit you soon!"

"Wait, one more thing!" shouted Aunt Melissa, stopping Ryo.

"What?" he asked.

Aunt Melissa pulled out a pokeball and summoned the pokemon within. A garchomp appeared between Ryo and Aunt Melissa.

"You can go, but you have to take Rick with you, or at least for the beginning of your journey." she said.

"What! Why? I want to capture and train my pokemon on my own. I don't need Rick to do battles for me. Plus, that would be cheating. He has already had so much experience when he was with you on your journey." complained Ryo.

"Rick isn't going to help you with battling." reassured Aunt Melissa. "All he is going to do is keep an eye on you and protect you from danger. You only have a Starly right now, and that pokemon might not be able to help you if you bump into trouble."

"Alright." sighed Ryo. "Rick can come with me."

"If you see Ryo in any trouble, I trust that you will protect him." she said to the Garchomp. Rick nodded to show that he understood.

"And also, Rick, you can't get in the way of my battling!" added Ryo. "I fight my own trainer battles with my pokemon."

Rick playfully patted Ryo on the head.

"Hey, watch it! Those claws are sharp, you know." said Ryo jokingly. "Oh, I almost forgot…." Ryo ran into the house and came back out with a head band.

"I surely need this for my journey. This is my lucky head band." said Ryo as he pulled it down over his hair. "Alright, well, Rick, let's get going." Rick growled in agreement as we headed off on the road.

Ryo looked down at Starly. "Hey, would you like to come with me on this journey" he asked the pokemon. The Starly nodded and chirped happily in response. "Alright then! Can I call you Ace?" The bird pokemon looked up at Ryo, and he hoped on his shoulder as if to give his consent to the nickname.

"Yes, so I guess I will call you Ace from now on." said Ryo.

"By Aunt Melissa!" waved Ryo one last time as they departed.

As the boy and the garchomp strolled down the pathway, Ryo began to wonder out loud. "I'm also very curious about legendary pokemon. It's so strange. Its written in ancient writing and it has been documented in the past, but right now, it seems that no one ever sees these legends anymore. I really want to learn more about them and found out what happened to them. Have you seen a legendary before, Rick?"

Rick looked down at Ryo and shrugged his shoulders. "Some people say I'm a fool to believe in legendary pokemon, but I'm certain they exist." said Ryo.

Ryo glanced down at his watch. "Okay, we have to hurry. I only have half an hour left before the lab closes. How far is Sandgem city from here?" wondered Ryo out loud as he pulled out his map.

"Oh, know! Can I really make it there in time?" asked Ryo. Rick stopped and motioned for Ryo to jump on his back.

"Really? You will do that for me?" asked Ryo.

Rick nodded and motioned for him to hurry.

"Starly, you should probably hold on tight." warned Ryo. He hopped onto the back of the land shark, and with great speed, Rick dashed across the land with his dragon strength. "This is so fun!" shouted Ryo in the wind as they sped through the woods. And just like that, the boy was off on his pokemon journey.

 **Author's Note: Thank you for reading my story. I will tell you in advance, this chapter and the next will be very underwhelming compared to the rest of the story. Please be patient, for in I need to introduce characters and the rules of the journey. The chapters after will be more exciting. Please review how it is so far.**


	3. Chapter 3: To Become a Pokemon Trainer

Up at Sandgem Town, the pokemon trainers were dissipating. What was once a crowded town earlier that day had now began to quiet down as evening approached. The line outside of Rowan's Lab was decreasing in size.

"Good luck on your journey, and make sure to take care of your Piplup." said Rowan as he bid farewell to a newly registered trainer.

"Sarah, send in the next person." Rowan said to his lab assistant. Sarah walked over to the door and motioned for the next child to come in. The next person was a girl, around the age of twelve. She had a short cut hairstyle that barely grew past her face. She had beige colored hair and she wore a peculiar necklace. On the necklace was a tag that had a carving of some sort of creature. This necklace caught the attention of Professor Rowan as she walked in.

"Welcome to my lab. What is your name?" asked the professor.

Professor Rowan had somewhat of an intimidating figure. Most children who were registering as a trainer were a bit nervous to talk in front of him. However, the girl was calm and she was completely composed.

"Hello, Professor Rowan. My name is Hazel." said the girl.

"Hazel, you say? That is a unique name. You want to get your license first or do you want to first choose your starter pokemon?" he asked.

"I'd like to have my license first." said Hazel. Professor Rowan showed her to a desk. He asked her to provide some personal information. After all the work was done, Rowan stepped into his private room to retrieve something.

A few minutes later, he came out with a brand new card. "This is your Trainer's License. With this card, you have the privilege to battle anyone else who also have a trainer's license." said Rowan.

"Ok. Thank you." said Hazel as Rowan handed the license to her.

"But, make sure you battle responsibly. Your license could easily be taken away if you abuse it. We promote competition, but if you are hurting people or pokemon with the way you battle, you could be revoked of your license." Informed Rowan.

It bothered the professor that Hazel did not immediately respond. Hazel looked down at her license and seemed to be pondering about something. She finally answered, "Yes, I'm aware of that."

Professor Rowan brought her to a room where there were three pokeballs neatly placed on a table. He grabbed all three released each pokemon from their pokeball. Out of the pokeballs, appeared the Sinnoh starters.

"These three are the starter pokemon. Chimchar, Piplup, and Turtwig." said Rowan. "For now, you can only choose one."

Hazel looked at the three pokemon. "They all look very promising." said Hazel. "But, I've been thinking about this for awhile. I have to go with….Turtwig." as she was speaking, she bent down and picked up the grass turtle pokemon.

"Interesting choice. Is there any reason you preferred Turtwig?" asked the Professor.

"I was adopted when I was a baby. I never knew who my parents were. I was raised by a foster mother and she owned a little cottage in the woods. She had a torterra there in the garden and I loved to always play with him, especially when I was little. I grew really close to my mother's Torterra, and that is why I decided to chose Turtwig." explained Hazel.

"So moving on, here are your pokeballs." said Rowan as he handed her six pokeballs. "You will receive six pokeballs from me, but if you need more, you'll have to buy them yourself. They sell pokeballs and all sorts of other goods at the pokemart. There should be one located in every city."

Hazel received all the pokeballs and placed them in her bag. She placed the Turtwig she was holding down on the ground. The Turtwig liked Hazel, and stayed close to her feet.

"The little guy seems into you. You must have a way with pokemon." said the professor.

"Hm, maybe." said Hazel. "Um, Professor. I know most people don't talk about this, but may I ask if you know anything about legendary pokemon?"

"Legendary pokemon? Well, those beings are myths. I'm aware they are talked about in ancient writing, but that is all I know about them." said Rowan.

"Professor, I have reason to believe that they are more than just myths. I, um, there has been many documented cases of people seeing legendaries, around a decade ago. It's weird that we don't ever see them anymore today, but if they appeared before, they must be real." explained Hazel.

"You can't possibly believe everything you read. Many people claim they saw legendary pokemon just to get attention. There are so many hoaxes out there. If those ancient scriptures had accurately depicted legendaries, then we should be seeing these pokemon much more frequently."

Hazel dropped the topic. She was certain that legendary pokemon were real. She had been hiding something from the Professor about her past. If the professor had known right then and there, he would have surely revoked her license.

"So, is that all?" asked Hazel, ready to leave.

"If you don't have anymore questions, then you can start your journey." said Rowan. As Hazel turned toward the glass doors that led outside, she heard a scream.

"AAAAh! WATCH OUT!" shouted a bunch of people.

"Everyone, get out of the way!" shouted another. Hazel heard chaos coming from the line that was waiting outside Rowan's lab. Before long, the children who were waiting dispersed and evacuated the front entrance of the lab. Hazel stared in shock as she saw what everyone was reacting to. Not too far into the distance was a garchomp, charging at full speed toward the lab! As she looked closer, she noticed there was a boy that was riding it.

"Professor Rowan!" yelled Hazel. "Look!"

Rowan walked over to the front door and saw the garchomp, and he was moving at great speed. "Hazel, take cover!" shouted Rowan as he pulled her away from the door.

"Rick! Slow down! We're going to crash!" shouted Ryo. Rick, realizing he was going too fast, tried slowing himself down by digging his feet into the ground, but there was too much momentum bringing them forward that Rick tripped over his feet when he tried to plant them to the ground. The landshark and the boy, both yelling in shock, as they crashed through the sliding door and into the Professor Rowan's lab.

After the dust settled down, all the kids looked inside to see what had happened. Rick got up and dusted off the depree from the broken door. Ryo, thankfully, was shielded from the blast by Garchomps large body.

"Young man! What do you think you're doing!" shouted the Professor after seeing all the damage done to his lab. Ryo looked back and saw the destruction he and Rick had caused.

"Oh! Sorry about that." said Ryo apologetically.

"Professor, it's only a door. You can always replace it." said Hazel with a matter of fact tone.

The Professor let out a long sigh. "What are you doing here? Are you also here to register?" he asked.

"Yes! I'm here to pick my starter and become a pokemon trainer!" exclaimed Ryo.

"Well, I'm going to need your information." said the professor. Rowan made Ryo go through the same processes as Hazel did. Realizing that he had been ignoring the girl that was in the same room with him, he asked, "Hello, my name is Ryo. What's your name?"

Hazel looked at Ryo. They seemed to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. Ryo was very outgoing and cheerful while Hazel always kept to herself.

"Um, my name is Hazel." she said. Her gaze fell on the garchomp next to Ryo. "Is that your pokemon?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, no he's not. His name is Rick. He's my Aunt's pokemon. When she was a trainer, she caught him as a a gible and used him in battle. My Aunt wasn't going to let me go on this journey unless I brought him along. She said just in case I get into trouble, Rick can protect me." explained Ryo.

"What about the Starly on your shoulder?" asked Hazel.

"Oh, Ace? He's my very own pokemon. I caught him with my bare hands." said Ryo nonchalantly. Hazel stared at Ryo, wondering if she had heard him correctly.

"Ryo, it's time for you to pick a starter." said Rowan as he motioned toward the table that had the three starter pokemon present.

"Oh wow! They all look great!" said Ryo with excitement. He glanced at each one carefully. "I just don't know which one to choose." said Ryo. He turned toward Rick. "Who do you think I should pick?" he asked. Rick brought his head down closer to the table as to examine each pokemon. The starters became a little unnerved by that, for he was a scary looking landshark.

"Ryo, you shouldn't ask your garchomp to pick a starter. You have to make that decision." said the Professor.

"May I give you my opinion?" asked Hazel. "Each of the elements, water, fire, and grass, has a secret symbol to them. People who chose the water starter value intelligence and fluency. People who chose grass value nature and stability. People who choose fire value dreams and ambition. Listen to which one of those characteristics you feel describes yourself."

"Where did you learn that?" asked Rowan.

"My foster mother taught me it." she said.

Ryo closed his eyes, trying to think hard. Which was he going to choose. He eventually reached out a hand and placed it atop a head of a starter.

"I choose Chimchar." said Ryo.

The little fire monkey jumped in happiness as he jumped onto Ryo's chest. "Hey, Chimchar, calm down." said Ryo.

Professor Rowan walked over with six pokeballs in his hands. "These will be your first six pokeballs. It seems that you already have to use three of them." said Rowan as he mentioned towards the Chimchar, Starly, and Garchomp.

"Thank you for the pokeballs." said Ryo. He sat down with his new starter pokemon and played around with him. Hazel watched as the two were bonding within seconds. It reminded her of herself, maybe Ryo had an even better connection with pokemon.

"It's getting late. You two should probably be heading out. I still have a couple more trainers to go through before I close down the lab." said Rowan. Ryo summoned his Chimchar into his pokeball and also summoned Ace into a pokeball.

"Don't you need a pokeball for your garchomp? He could be mistaken as a wild pokemon" said the Professor.

"Oh, I can't get him inside one of these pokeballs even if I wanted him to. He belongs to my Aunt and she already has a pokeball for him, which is back home. So Rick, here, is stuck outside at my side." said Ryo.

Ryo and Rick exited through the broken door, and Hazel followed after him. Both children bid farewell to the professor as they headed to an inn in Sandgem town. It was getting quite late. Hazel, by coincidence, was also going into the same inn.

"Hey, that's a nice necklace." said Ryo as he motioned toward the carving. "Do you know that pokemon?"

"Oh, this. This is a legendary pokemon. My foster mother told me stories about it. It is known as the master of time." she said. Ryo stared at the pokemon on the necklace in awe.

Ryo couldn't help himself, so he confronted Hazel and asked, "Hey, would you like to travel with me on my pokemon journey?"

Hazel was quite startled by this request. "Me? I, I can't. I started this journey to travel alone. I have my own….goals." she said. "I want to see the legendary pokemon."

"Really? Me too! I always wanted to learn more about them!" said Ryo.

"You don't think legendaries are myths?" asked Hazel, surprised that someone shares her interest.

"Not at all. They are very real."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Well, I…." Ryo paused trying to explain. "I just know. I have this feeling that they are real, or have existed before."

"Okay, Ryo. I will travel with you!" said Hazel abruptly.

"You changed your mind? Well, that's great!" said Ryo innocently.

"You are one of the few people I met who believes in legendaries. We can get farther if we work together in our research." said Hazel.

"Well, I also would like to be a great pokemon trainer as well." said Ryo. "If you want to learn more about legendaries, then why is it important for you to become a pokemon trainer?"

"It gives you access to more information." said Hazel. Ryo wasn't sure what she meant by that. But he was just happy that he was able to make a new friend that day.

That very night, Hazel lied awake staring up at the ceiling. She felt bad for lying to Ryo as well.

Ryo lied awake that night too. He also held a secret. He couldn't stop thinking about the pokemon on Hazel's necklace.

 **Author's Note: Thank you for the people who are following. It would be greatly appreciated if you can review or comment about the story.**


	4. Chapter 4: Trouble in Jubilife

Ryo and Hazel slowly made their way to the next city. This stop was not like any town Ryo has seen before. Jubilife was a full scale city, with buildings that touched the skies. The city was crowded with people and the pokemon school was nowhere in sight.

"I don't see the school house anywhere. It should be down this street." said Hazel as she scanned the area.

"Is it that over there?" asked Ryo, pointing at an old red building.

"That can't be it." she said as she looked at the directions given by the Professor. As Hazel glanced down at the map, then back up again. She saw that Ryo and Rick had already ran up to the door of the building.

"Hey, wait up!" shouted Hazel as she chased after him.

The two pushed through the double doors and Hazel followed in after him. The building was larger than it looked. It had multiple battlefields lined up in the middle of the room and there were trainers all over the place, congregating.

A woman walked up and said, "Hello. Welcome to the Trainer's School. Are you two new pokemon trainers?"

"Yes, we're here to learn the fundamentals of pokemon battling." said Hazel.

"Ok, then. Follow me to our learning room." said the lady as they entered a side room. "Sorry, your garchomp can't come in here." she said. "No pokemon can set foot in this room."

"That's fine. Rick, can you stay out here?" asked Ryo. Even though he was unhappy, Rick obliged and stood by the door as the two entered the room.

In that room, the two learned about pokemon battling and the rules of it. Each player takes turns and have to have the same amount of pokemon. The lady went over policy and proper edicate. She also went over how pokemon types worked and type advantages and weaknesses, as well as effective and ineffective moves.

After the lesson was done, she asked, "Would you two like to battle each other to try it out?"

Ryo and Hazel looked at each other, and then simultaneously, both answered, "Yes." The followed the lady out onto a battlefield and she stood at the center. Hazel and I each took a trainer's box on opposite sides of the field.

"I will be the referee for this battle." she said. "This will be a one on one battle. If a trainer's pokemon is unable to fight, then the other trainer wins. Now, let the battle begin."

"Chimchar, I choose you!" shouted Ryo as he summoned Chimchar out to the floor.

"I guess I will use my starter too. Turtwig, come on out." said Hazel.

"Chimchar, use ember." said Ryo as Chimchar shot a wisp of fire at Turtwig.

"Turtwig, dodge." shouted Hazel. The Turtwig was very light on its feet and jumped up into the air, making the ember attack miss. However, Chimchar was already in the air as well, going up for a follow up attack.

"Use scratch." said Ryo as the Chimchar swiped down onto Turtwig's face, sending him falling back to the ground.

"Turtwig, use absorb!" shouted Hazel. Turtwig began training Chimchar of his energy.

"Don't let Turtwig absorb any more of your power. Go in for a quick attack!" shouted Ryo.

As Chimchar began blindlessly running toward Turtwig for an attack, Rick noticed the poor decision. He tried growling at Ryo to warn him of what's next, but it was too late.

"Use Razor leaf!" shouted Hazel as Turtwig shootout blades of grass that cut Chimchar many times over.

"Chimchar, no!" shouted Ryo. Chimchar fell to the ground and was out cold.

"Chimchar is unable to battle, Turtwig is the winner. This makes Hazel the victor of the battle!" shouted the lady.

Rick walked up to Ryo and knocked him on the head. "Hey, what's that for?" said Ryo.

Rick motioned toward the battle field. "Yeah, I guess I could've used Ember again instead." said Ryo as he ran up to Chimchar. "Sorry about my lousy battling skills, I hope you're okay." he said. The Chimchar was awake now. Even though he lost the battle, he was still full of energy and began jumping around from excitement of the first battle.

"Hey, Hazel. Good battle." said Ryo.

"Thanks." said Hazel. "You did great too. I actually had some battling practice when I was younger. My foster mother was a decent trainer herself, and she exposed me to the art of pokemon battling when I was five."

"Alright, you two. You may now go off on your journey. You have learned everything you need to know to be a pokemon trainer. From here on out, it's practice." said the lady as she went to greet the next trainer that walked in.

Ryo and Hazel left the school and headed for the pokemon center. They walked through the sliding door, and stared at a horrific scene.

"EVERYONE GET ON THE GROUND, NOW!" shouted a large bodied man. He was with four other men and they all had masks on. Ryo realized they were pokemon robbers, just like Aunt Melissa warned them. They all had Houndooms and the robbers used them to threaten all the people at the store.

Ryo and Hazel obeyed and dropped to the ground, as well as everyone else in the pokemon center. Rick was reluctant to get on the ground, but Hazel nudged at it's feet to do so. The largest man, with his houndoom, walked to the counter and demanded the nurse for all the pokemon in their possession. The nurse walked around back and returned with a cart full of pokeballs.

"Lucky us. Looks like today we have a larger stash than usual." said the robber as he began placing all the pokeballs into his bag. The men collected all the pokeballs and began heading for the door.

Ryo couldn't stand to watch. He got up right when the robbers were at the door. "You can't leave! I'm not letting you steal all those people's pokemon!" shouted Ryo.

"Big mistake, kid." said one of the robbers. "Houndoom, attack!" he shouted. The black dog pounced toward Ryo. Remembering his promise to Aunt Melissa, Rick sprang up and used Dragon Claw. He clawed the houndoom right in the face, sending it flying back and crashing into the wall.

"That…...all of you, attack!" shouted the robber. All the houndooms pounced simultaneously at Rick. Rick was very trained to fight on his own. It would have been easy for Rick to take out all of them with Earthquake, but he acknowledged the fact that there were many humans there, and his earthquake could cause the whole building to collapse. As two Houndooms(one in front and one behind) sprang up to attack him, he used Dragon Tail on one and Dragon Claw on the other, sending them crashing into opposite sides of the pokemon center. The other two houndooms also jumped up for the attack. Rick used brick break on one and managed to dodge the other.

One of the robbers pulled out a device. It was some sort of collar. As the last Houndoom sprang at Rick again as a distraction, the robber threw the collar at Rick. Rick used Brick Break on the Houndoom, but as he was attacking, the collar clasped itself onto Rick's neck. Confused by what happened, Rick began pulling on the object that had attached itself to him. Before long, the collar began surging with energy and Rick roared out in a cry of pain.

"Oh no! What are they doing to him?" shouted Ryo as he saw Rick being shocked by the collar.

"It's a control collar. It has the power to control any pokemon." said Hazel.

"Hahaha! Yes. That Garchomp is mine!" laughed the head robber maniacally. But his celebration turned to fear as well. Rick began attacking everything around him. He roared and roared and began kicking over tables and dragon clawing the walls.

"Hey. I have control over you! You must obey me!" yelled the robber. Rick turned toward them and used Dragon Rush, sending all the robbers flying. When all the robbers were knocked out cold, the people of the pokemon center began running out screaming for their lives as a wild land shark was rampaging.

Ryo ran up to Rick. "Hey, calm down. It's me." he said. Rick glanced at Ryo, but then a shock from the collar made him roar again and he dove toward Ryo, ready to dragon claw him.

"Turtwig, use Razor Leaf!" shouted Hazel as Turtwig shot blades of grass at Rick, irritating him. The land sharks attention was focused on Hazel now. The collar let out another shock burst, causing Rick to screech in pain again. He blasted a hole in the ceiling again and jumped out.

"Hazel, we have to follow him!" shouted Ryo as they headed out of the pokemon center. Outside in the streets, police cars were rushing to the site. One car stopped in front of the store. Hazel ran up to the officer and said, "The robbers are in there."

"We don't care about the robbers. There is a wild Garchomp terrorizing the city!" said the officer.

"No! He's not wild, he's trained. He is being controlled by an electric collar." said Ryo as he began running down the street after Rick.

Rick was charging down the street, ramming his neck into the buildings to try and break off the collar. He stumbled upon the center of the city, where all the people were. They all screamed and ran from Rick. Ryo managed to catch up to the chaos. He tried to proceed, but an officer blocked his path.

"It's dangerous here. Stay back!" he commanded.

"No, he belongs with me!" said Ryo as he broke past the officer and ran towards Rick. Rick saw Ryo coming and tried slashing out at him. Ryo was agile and managed to break left before he was hit and he leaped onto Rick's back.

"It's alright, Rick! Stop struggling!" yelled Ryo as he used a sharp rock in his hand and tried to smash the collar off. The collar was very durable, and it wasn't breaking as easily as Ryo thought it would. Unable to shake Ryo off, Rick began scaling the building next to him. He smashed his body against the glass windows, but Ryo held on.

He continued smashing the rock on the collar trying to break it off. Rick reached the top of the building and finally managed to get Ryo off by impacting the ground. The shock wave sent Ryo flying off his back and he landed at the edge of the building. Thankfully, Ryo managed to stop himself from rolling off. He looked back and realized this particular building was a skyscraper. Ryo's back also hurt from some glass cut wounds.

Rick let out another roar. Ryo couldn't bare to see him in so much pain. He noticed the many depree on the roof that was created from Rick's earthquakes. He grabbed a piece of rock that was even sharper than the last. He ran in one more time for a strike at the collar, but Rick suddenly swung out his arm, hitting Ryo in the stomach. Ryo let out a cry of pain as he was sent flying back. With great focus, and in mid flight, he endured the pain and threw the sharp rock like a projectile at Rick's collar.

The rock made contact and Ryo saw the split second of the collar snapping in half and exploding. Happy he was able to destroy the collar, he relaxed a bit. But not for long as he realized that Rick has pushed him with great force and he was plummeting off the roof top. The people of the Jubilife screamed as they saw the twelve year old boy fall from the top of the tower.

"RYO!" shouted Hazel from the crowd.

Ryo was helpless. He saw the ground approaching him. But, then miraculously, Rick dived off the building in a position that made his descent five times faster. He reach Ryo and caught him in between his arms. He then pulled him in and landed feet first on the stone ground. As Rick made impact, dust flew up in the air.

The people were uncertain what had happened. They all stared intently into the area of impact. As the dust clouds cleared, everyone saw that the garchomp had protected the child. They were quite confused, for it was attacking him just a moment earlier. Ryo had passed out from the fall. Rick let go of Ryo's body and he himself collapsed onto the ground.

When Ryo was awake, he saw Hazel next to him, as well as an officer. He was inside a hospital and noticed that his back and stomach was bandaged. Hazel saw that Ryo was awake and informed the officer. She walked over to Ryo and sat down.

"Your garchomp has caused quite a lot of damage today. And, it seems you have suffered quite a lot as well." said the officer, motioning toward my wounds.

"Where is Rick. I mean, my Garchomp." asked Ryo.

"Don't worry. He's in the next room being treated as well. He is not going to be in trouble. It turns out he is not a wild pokemon. He cannot be caught by a pokeball." said the officer.

"He's my Aunt's pokemon. She gave him to me on my journey so he could protect me." said Ryo.

"It seems like your garchomp hurt you more than he protected you." said the officer.

"He did protect me! He saved me from those robbers. He protected me from those Houndooms who were about to attack me. The robbers had a control collar that they manage to attach to Rick's neck. That is why he went out of control It wasn't his fault. Plus, he even saved me from falling off the building when he was freed from the collar!" said Ryo.

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Your garchomp is not going to be taken away. The robbers will be getting full responsibility of the damages that were caused. You don't have to fight any more." said the officer. "I'm just here to return this to you." she said as she placed Ryo's license on his lap. "I saw it drop out of your pocket during the commotion."

With that, the officer left the room. "That was really dangerous, Ryo. I'm glad you're not hurt too badly." said Hazel.

"I'm just glad that Rick is fine." said Ryo.

"I have some good news." said Hazel as she pulled out a flyer from her bag. "The great Sinnoh Competition is being held here, just outside of Jubilife in a week! This competition only comes once every ten years!"

"What is the Great Sinnoh Competition?" asked Ryo.

"It's like a tournament, where around fifty to a hundred trainers attend. There are different event and trials, where in each, a large percentage of trainers are eliminated. I'm not too sure what these events are, but the best part is, the last eight trainers remaining will be able to obtain all eight gym badges of Sinnoh!" she said.

"All eight! That's perfect. That means we can save all that time traveling around the region, and instead, be able to compete in the Sinnoh League after this tournament." said Ryo.

A nurse was eavesdropping on us, and she commented, "Don't go to that tournament. You kids are too young. That Competition is not for the faint of heart. Most of them might be rookie trainers, but they are very skilled. The trials there are something far more strenuous than a gym battle. I should warn you."

"Oh, thank you for informing us." said Hazel. She looked back at Ryo. "She does have a point. Maybe we shouldn't go…."

"No! We have to. The sooner I get my badges, the better. I'm going to participate, and you are going to come with me!" said Ryo. Hazel sighed. It was an apparent mistake. Hazel realized that once Ryo had an idea, he would never back down.

"Alright, then. Let's do this." she said. "But promise that you will rest up this next week."

"Okay, I promise." said Ryo as he looked out the window with determination.


	5. Chapter 5: The Competition Begins

**Author's Note: Please comment on how the story is so far, especially if you have read this far into the story. I would really appreciate it. I want to see the feedback and how I could improve my writing.**

Stark Mountain was the sight of a raging volcano. No one stepped foot in that region because of the dangers and hazards located at every corner. However, this mountain held a secret. Deep under the volcano was a hidden lair that stretched for miles upon miles. Inside this lair, stood the dark lord and all of the legendary pokemon. They were turned into mindless slaves and followed the lord's commands. They stayed in the caves under Stark Mountain and did not try to escape. Even after having control over all these legendaries, the dark lord was not happy. One legendary was able to escape his grasp on that revolutionary day.

"Dialga, the master of time. Exactly where have you ran off too?" thought the dark lord. It was surely a strange phenomenon. The day where Mewtwo took down the Pokemon God, Dialga was there and completely helpless. But when he ordered the legendaries to seize him, the giant legendary disappeared, straight into thin air. Where was he? And more importantly, how did he escape? The Dark Lord thought these questions would never be answered, however, luck sided with him.

As usual, the Dark Lord would occasionally send small legendaries to scout Sinnoh and the other regions, in hopes to find Dialga. Everyday, the legendaries came back with no information. But today was different. As the lord was sitting at his throne, casually ordering Groudon and Zekrom to spare each other, Mesprit teleported in front of the Lord with important news.

Talking telepathically, she said, "Sir, I have found Dialga's aura." You might know this, but every pokemon has aura, especially legendaries. Legendaries are better at sensing aura from other pokemon, however, legendaries can keep their aura concealed. However, when a legendary becomes excited from a fight or some other event, a lot of aura will leak out from the pokemon.

The Dark Lord's eyes lit up. "Where? Where was this aura you speak of?" he asked.

"I sensed it in the heart of Jubilife City." said Mesprit. "But, strangely, I did not see master Dialga there."

The Dark Lord began thinking, and he realized what had happened to Dialga on that fateful day. "It seems that Dialga is hiding." he said. He summoned upon Lugia, who use to be one of the guardians of the Johto Region. The legendary flew to him at once. He was a mix between a bird and a dragon, and his white feathery scales had been tainted with a dark misty color from the curse placed onto him by Mewtwo. Nonetheless, Lugia was majestic, but he only thought to serve the Dark Lord, then.

"Lugia, go to Jubilife City. Dialga is in that area. You will go and retrieve him by force." said the Dork lord. "Attack anything that gets in your way." Lugia gave a loud roar in obligation and flew out of Stark Mountain. He flew high above the clouds, as to conceal his presence from the humans down below. With another stroke of his wings, he flew like a jet and began soaring toward Jubilife.

Ryo and Hazel trained day after day for the upcoming Sinnoh Competition. Skilled trainers from all around the region were coming to the event so to get a head start at the Sinnoh League. Ryo and Rick both recovered from their injuries, and they were perfectly fine with training together even after that incident. Hazel was able to catch an Eevee. Eevee was a great addition to her team, and with Turtwig, they were perfect battle partners.

As the week sped by, it was now the morning of the Sinnoh Competition. The flyer gave the information that applicants for the competition will meet at the large field next to the river between Jubilife and Canalave City. Ryo and Hazel rushed to the sight of the tournament, where they were shocked to see hundreds of pokemon trainers, all gathered by the river bank. Most of them were older, ranging from teens to young adults. The two of them had prepared well for the tournament. Ryo's chimchar had evolved to Monferno, and Starly had evolved into Staravia. Hazel's turtwig had also evolved into a Grotle, and her Eevee had evolved into Vaporeon.

Despite their efforts, it was clear to the both of them, that compared to the other applicants, they were out classed. Most of the trainers awaiting the start of the competition have a full party of six pokemon, and many of them had fully evolved starters and other pokemon with them, showing off their fearless team.

"Ryo, it seems that we might have underestimated this competition. Are you sure we should continue?" asked Hazel.

"We don't need a full party. You read the flyer, right? This is more than just pokemon battling. What gets you to the top is your determination and connection with your pokemon." said Ryo.

The two walked into the crowd of trainers and their pokemon. It was tough, but they were able to squeeze their way to the front, where all the Sinnoh gym leaders had gathered to volunteer and manage the registration.

Ryo walked up to Roark, the gym leader of Oreburgh City. "Hi, we would like to register for the Sinnoh Competition." said Ryo.

"Okay. I need to see your trainer's license and and all you have to do is fill out this form." said Roark. Ryo and Hazel sat down and began filling in their information. Hazel immediately saw warnings on the paper.

" _The Sinnoh Competition is not responsible for any injuries during the event. This tournament will contain a series of trials that runs in an elimination style. Multiple people had died during the last one held a decade ago. The competition is not for those with the faint of heart. So by signing this form, the trainer has agreed that if anything were to happen to him/her, it would go uncharged."_

Hazel read this line and was about to inform Ryo about it, but she saw that he had already ran up to submit it. She let out a sigh. The truth was, Hazel was more than ready to join this competition. It was Ryo she was worried about that didn't have what it takes.

Roark stared at Ryo's form. "You only have two pokemon? A monferno and a Staravia." Ryo was confused with his reaction.

"What's wrong. Did I not meet a requirement?" asked Ryo.

"I'm not suppose to give my opinion to other trainers, but all the applicants here have six pokemon and they have very strong ones as well. Based on your pokemon, I would say you have little to no chance of getting far in this tournament. I would recommend that you wait for the next one."

"But the next one will be in ten years. I can't wait that long! I want to attend this competition, and I already said on that form that I would take full responsibility for it." said Ryo certainly.

"Well, if you really want to….wait, is that your Garchomp?" he asked pointing toward Rick, who was casually nudging Ryo in the side telling him to hurry up. "If you sign that pokemon up, you might have a better chance." said Roark.

"He's mine, but he is not my pokemon." As you could imagine, Roark stared in confusion. "He is my Aunt's pokemon and he is only with me now to protect me from danger on my journey."

Roark jotted Garchomp's name on Ryo's form. "Hey! I told you I…" Ryo began yelling, but Roark get him off.

"You said your Aunt wants him to protect you, right? Well, he can only do that if he is signed up for the tournament." with that, Roark placed Ryo's application form onto the pile. "Next!" he said.

Ryo sighed and walked off. "Guess you're going to be sticking around with me for the competition." he said to Rick.

Hazel approached and handed Roark her registration form. "Not you, too. I have to tell you, two pokemon is not…." Hazel cut him off and slammed her hand onto the table. "I don't care about your recommendations. I know what I'm doing." Roark was very surprised to see the resolve in Hazel's eyes. Without questioning, he added her form to the pile.

Hazel went to look for Ryo, but he had disappeared into the crowd. "Hey, Ryo!" called out Hazel. But he did not answer back.

Ryo was hanging around with Rick until a trainer was rushing by to the registration table and tripped over Rick's tail. "Hey!" he shouted. "Your garchomp tripped me!"

Ryo looked down at him and said casually. "Oh, sorry about that." and walked right along. Angry, the trainer got up and stepped in front of them. "Do you know who I am? I am a veteran trainer! This is my second region. I already collected all the badges from Hoenn." he said with pride. "I want you to bend down on your knees and beg me for your forgiveness." he said.

Rick growled at the trainer, knowing he was nothing but trouble. "Look, I'm sorry that my garchomp's tail tripped you, but you can't blame me that you didn't look to see where you were going." said Ryo. Angered, the trainer threw a punch at Ryo, but Ryo quickly dodged it. The trainer swung very hard and the momentum made him fall forward as he missed and he fell onto the ground. The trainers around Ryo noticed the commotion and began chanting.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

At that moment, an officer came into see what all the fuss was about, and she saw a Ryo standing in front of another trainer sprawled on the ground.

"Young man, if you are starting a fight, I would have to remove you from here." threatened the officer to Ryo. Thinking fast, the trainer got up and pointed an accusing finger at Ryo.

"Officer, I just came to tell him good luck, and , and he pushed me down on the ground for no reason.

"That's not true!" yelled Ryo. But the officer was not taking any of it. Fortunately, a girl stepped up.

"Officer, this boy did not start the fight. This lousy trainer was the one who threw the first punch and he missed!" she said. The trainers around her laughed at the comment.

The officer looked back at the trainer on the ground and all he could do was smile embarrassingly.

"Come here, you little rascal." said the officer as she grabbed the trainer from the ground and dragged him away.

"Hey, thank you for that." said Ryo.

"Oh, no problem . He deserved it." she said. "By the way, my name is Lucy. I'm here to win this competition." she said and she reached a hand out for Ryo to shake.

"Oh, fine by me. I plan on winning as well." said Ryo as he shook her hand. "My name is Ryo." he added.

"Well, Ryo, you do realize that the top eight applicants all receive the eight badges, so it is possible for the both of us to be winners." she said. "I heard you only have three pokemon. What are you up to?" she asked.

"What do you mean? I'm just here to get stronger. I started my pokemon journey around week back and I'm using this competition as a place to connect more with my pokemon." said Ryo.

"Hold on, are you telling me you only have one week's experience of being a trainer?" she asked bewildered. "Looks like you have lots to learn my friend." she said as she dragged Ryo along. "Take a look around. All these trainers are very skilled. Occasionally you might get a trainer who thinks to highly of himself, but most of these people have lots of training experience. I'd recommend for you to avoid any confrontations during the Competition." she said.

A bunch of trainers were gathered around, stalking another trainer who was hanging out with his gliscor. "Look at that kid. He looks pathetic."One trainer said. Another said, "Hey, lets go and mess with him." The four trainers approached to the young boy. He looked approximately the same age as Ryo. He had dark blue hair and he had a threatening gaze in his eyes that the trainer didn't seem to notice.

One of the trainers walked up and pushed him back. "Hey, you! What's your name punk."

The boy looked up expressionless at the bully. "My name's Quinn. Nice to meet you too." he said sarcastically, reaching out for a handshake. The taller trainer slapped his hands away.

"You think you're so funny?" said the trainer as they four of them dove in to punch Quinn.

Lucy explained pokemon battling to Ryo, and how he should play during the competition. "You need more practice. Do you know how much experience I have? I've been to three other regions. I've seen Kanto, Johto, and Unova. The Sinnoh league will be the fourth league I'm going to attend."

"Why, you must be really good!" said Ryo.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. "Oh, that's my friend calling. I gotta go. Good luck!" she said as she ran off.

When Ryo was alone with Rick again, he began searching for Hazel. As he began walking, he saw a boy walked up to an officer. "Excuse me, miss. You might want to go back there. Four kids have passed out on the floor."

"What? Really?" she said as she hurried back there. The boy looked around his area and Ryo's eyes accidentally met with his. Smiling unusually, he walked over to Ryo. "Hi, my name is Quinn." he said.

"Hi! I'm Ryo." he said, but he couldn't help but notice that this boy was a little strange.

Quinn looked up at Rick and eyed him. "Cool garchomp you have there." he said. Rick stared down at him suspiciously. Ryo didn't bother to clarify that it wasn't his.

"So, what kind of pokemon do you have?" Quinn asked curiously. Ryo was about to answer, a large voice disrupted their conversation.

"CONTESTANTS! TURN YOUR ATTENTION TOWARD THE SINNOH CHAMPION, CYNTHIA!" shouted an announcer. Up at the end of the large crowd of trainers was a podium, where for the first time, all the trainers realized that the champion of the region had made her appearance.

Cynthia was a rather tall woman and she wore a brown coat and unique curls in her hair. She stood up at the microphone and started her speech. "Good morning Pokemon trainers! The infamous Sinnoh Games will finally begin. I wish the best luck to you all and pray that all of you will make it out alive."

She paused and her expression grew darker. "This competition is dangerous. If you are not determined to become the best of the best, I'd advise you not to continue."

The trainers in the crowd began to mutter to each other from what she said. "Well that's all I have to say. Now, let the competition begin!" All the trainers yelled and cheered on que. As Cynthia stepped off the podium, an announcer stepped on.

"It seems that this particular year, we have an abundance of Pokemon trainers attending this competition. In the previous decade, the number of applicants only reached 95. However, today we haves around 200 applicants. Because of this, we will be including the preliminary trial."

Quinn yawned as he listened. It was obvious that he wasn't interested in the explanation. Ryo, however, was listening intently.

"The preliminaries will be held on Iron Island. All Pokemon trainers, please enter the boats to your left. Don't rush, there is enough room for all 200 of you." Said the announcer.

All the trainers began migrating towards the boats. Ryo followed Quinn into the closest boat to them. When they got on, Ryo saw Hazel.

"Ryo, there you are!" She said as she walked up to him. "Where were you this whole time?" She asked.

"Oh I was just looking around. I met a few people. Um, this is Quinn" said Ryo. Quinn looked up and waved at Hazel. As the three of them got on the ship, the side doors of the boat slammed shut and the headed off to Iron Island.

Meanwhile at the riverbank, the officer was looking for the four people that the boy had told her about. Now that all the trainers had left, it was easier for her to search. However, what she found really shocked her. She saw four people lying on the ground near the back next to a tree. As she walked closer to examine them, she had found that they didn't just pass out. The four boys were beaten up so badly that their faces were indistinguishable. She quickly bent down and shook the closest trainer to wake him.

"What the hell happened here?" She asked the trainers. "Whose Pokemon did this to you?"

"It wasn't the Pokemon!" Stuttered the trainer. It was clear that whatever it was scared them out of their minds.

Back at the boats, as Ryo and Hazel talked to each other about plans for the preliminaries, Quinn just stared off into the sea, seemingly not caring about what happens during the competition. Quinn noticed something about Ryo. He had an unusually strong aura.

Lugia slows his descent as he senses Dialga's aura. It's very weak, but it is present. He sensed it start to leave Jubilife and was heading up North. Lugia changed his course and flew after the scent.


	6. Chapter 6: Challenge 1 - Iron Island

**Author's Note: Please review the story, especially if you are following or have favorited. It will mean a lot to get feedback.**

The boats sailed along the blue ocean. Quinn let out a loud yawn as he turned to face Ryo. "So, what pokemon do you have?" he asked.

"Oh, um, I have a monferno and Staravia. This is Rick, but he isn't really my pokemon." said Ryo.

"That's all? You only have three pokemon? Why the hell are you competing in this competition?" asked Quinn confused.

"Well, I'm here to let myself and my pokemon become stronger. And if I do happen to win, then I can get a free ticket to the Sinnoh League." said Ryo. His innocent response irritated Quinn a little.

"Let's say you do get into the top eight, by some miracle. You only have three pokemon. Do you think you can compete in the league with only three pokemon?" challenged Quinn.

"Oh, I guess I didn't think about that." said Ryo nonchalantly.

"What about you?" asked Quinn as he turned toward Hazel. "Why are you here?"

"Same reasons as Ryo stated. I want to get stronger. There are many pro trainers on this boat with us right now. From the experience of this competition, I can learn a lot." said Hazel. She looked down at her pokeballs and began to contemplate about something. "However, unlike Ryo, I will not be going to the Sinnoh League after. This is not my goal."

"What? Why not?" asked Ryo. "Don't you want to win and get the eight badges?"

"I do want to win, that I am certain. But the Sinnoh League isn't what I'm after. I have to take care of something else." Hazel was avoiding to tell them something, and Quinn was a ware of the fact.

"Ok, whatever." said Quinn, as to quickly end the conversation. "And plus, you two seem too young to be risking the danger you would put yourself in in this Competition." he added.

"You aren't much older, either. You look the same age as I. Why are **you** here, then?" asked Ryo.

"Are kidding me?" said Quinn. "I have a party full of powerful pokemon. I'm much more prepared than the two of you. I have a Metagross, Salamence, Gliscor, Tyranitar, Charizard, and Greninja. They are all on me right now, and they are registered for the competition."

"Show off." muttered Hazel under her breath.

Soon, the boats arrived on Iron Island. The island was desolate and void of any kind of vegetation. The land seemed to stretch mile after a mile with only rocks in sight. Ryo, Hazel, and Quinn got of the boats and were swept forward by the crowd of applicants. As soon as all the trainers set foot off the boats, the boats started up and sailed away.

"Hello, everyone! This is the sight of the Preliminary trials. Now everyone, take a look to your right." motioned the announcer as she pointed toward a large rock structure. There was a cave entrance. It was quite large and it gave off an eerie atmosphere.

"In a moment, you would all proceed into the cave. Iron Island may not be very large, but there is a network of tunnels and large caverns underneath. And this leads me to the first trial. There are entrances like this one all around the coast of Iron Island. All you will divide yourselves in groups of four to five. Your goal is to reach a secret room hidden deep within the maze of caves under Iron Island. It's very simple. If your group gets to the room before six hours, you will pass to the next round. People who don't make it will get eliminated. The elite four will be situated in that room to receive all the applicants who made it thus far, and once the time is up, they will help guide you out of the cave through a secret exit."

The announcer paused, and then said, "There will be many wild pokemon located throughout the caverns. I should warn you all to be careful, for they will attack without hesitation. We do not have control over these pokemon. Now, choose your groups."

All the trainers began talking amongst each other. They were all assumably looking to form alliances and become a group. Ryo looked over at Hazel and Quinn.

"Hey, the three of us could be a group." said Ryo.

"Yeah, but we need at least one more person." said Hazel, looking around to see if anyone was interested in joining them.

Their choices were diminishing. Trainers soon began dispersing with their groups, and it seemed that new members for their group was becoming scarce. "Ok, let's just ask that guy over there." said Ryo, pointing to an older trainer, around the age of sixteen. He seemed to have the same problem. He was left without a group as well.

"Hey, can you join our group for the first event?" asked Ryo. The trainer turned around to see trainers younger than him walking his way.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" he said immediately. "My name is Dan. And you guys seem to need my help." he began to act quite boastful. "I guess it's my job to take care of the rookies."

"We're rookies?! Oh you don't….." began Quinn, but Hazel cut him off.

"Yes, thank you for agreeing to come with us. It seems that most of the trainers have already created their groups." said Hazel.

"Ok, well, I will lead the way." said Dan cheerfully. Quinn did not like his demeaning attitude toward them.

We walked up to the announcer, showing her our group of four. She recorded our names and brought us to a cave entrance.

"Currently, the cave door is closed. Once all the trainers get into groups and are each aligned at a cave entrance, the entrances will open and the clock will begin to count down. Remember, you only have six hours." said the announcer. "And also, you are only allowed two pokemon for this event, so I will hold on to the pokemon you aren't taking into the cave."

"Ok, here are my extra pokemon." said Quinn as he handed the announcer four pokeballs. Hazel only had two pokemon, so she didn't have to choose. Dan was reluctant to give the announcer the rest of his pokemon. He worried that two pokemon was not enough.

Ryo looked at Rick and then the two balls in his hands. "Sorry, Pal. But I need these two guys to get a little more action." Ryo said to him. Realizing that Ryo was going to leave him out, Rick stamped his feet on the ground, demanding a place in his party in the caves.

"How about this. I promise to use you and only you for the next challenge." compromised Ryo. Well, that was enough to get Rick to oblige.

"You don't have a pokeball for your garchomp?" asked the announcer warily.

"Well, no. I don't have his pokeball on me. But he is tamed. Don't worry. Rick wouldn't hurt a fly." reassured Ryo. Rick walked away with the announcer holding their pokeballs. The announcer place all of their pokeballs in a crate and labeled each of their names on it. She then looked at Rick, not sure wat to do with him.

"So, where are you from?" asked Hazel to Dan.

"Oh, I'm from the Unova region. I've been on a pokemon journey for a very long time, feel free to learn from me." he said. "I've been to Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto. This region will be my fifth." he bragged.

"How many leagues have you been to?" challenged Quinn.

"Oh, yeah, well, about that….I didn't have time, because I was…... so busy getting invitations from skilled trainers…."

"Did you even get all eight badges from any of the regions?" asked Quinn.

"I've….I've gotten a few badges here and there." stammered Dan. Quinn was really enjoying this, but the four's attention was turned toward the entrance as the stone door slowly slid out of the way to reveal the darkness within.

"Cut it out guys, we have to proceed." said Hazel.

"Yeah, you can go first, I'll…...protect from the back. Most attacks happen from the rear." said Dan. So the four of them began treading through the darkness of the cave. All of them couldn't prevent themselves from bumping into rocks or tripping over jagged rocks on the floor. "Hey, I got an idea!" said Ryo as he summoned Monferno.

As the fire monkey appeared, the flames on his body lighted up the dark tunnel. "Good thinking." said Hazel.

"I would've thought of that too if I had a fire pokemon." added Dan. Quinn rolled his eyes.

It all seemed fine at first. The tunnel didn't branch off at any point, so all four of them were certain they were on the right track. However, as almost an hour had passed, the group was not able to find any other passages. It was as if the tunnel was never going to lead anywhere.

"Something's wrong. This might be a trap." said Quinn.

"Did you notice?" asked Hazel.

"What?" Quinn asked.

"The ground we are walking on, it's tilted down. Look." mentioned Hazel as she grabbed two pieces of rocks. She threw one in front and one backward, and the four of them listened to the sounds of the rocks bouncing along the cave walls. The sound of the rock that was thrown backward had ceased, but the one that was thrown forward continued to bounce in the distance."

"We are walking down an incline. It seems that we are way below sea level by now." said Hazel.

"But what does that mean?" asked Dan.

"It means that we are getting closer to the room with the elite four. Remember what the announcer said. The room we are looking for is hidden deep inside the caverns. This means that the room must be located at the very bottom. We entered the cave from the surface of Iron Island. There is not enough room for the networks of tunnels to spread above. Therefore, we should be aiming to go down." explained Hazel.

"So, that means we are on the right track! See I told you we had nothing to worry about." boasted Dan.

This time, Hazel was the one to roll her eyes. As they kept walking, they stopped dead in their tracks when they heard a rumble.

"What was that?!" asked Hazel.

Before any of them could react, the ground gave away.

"Ah! What's going on!" cried Dan.

"There must've been some sort of tunnel right below us, and the roof above must have gave away from our weight!" explained Hazel(somehow) as they all went plummeting down.

"Monferno! Use rock climb!" shouted Ryo. Monferno grabbed Ryo by the feet. Ryo swung down and grabbed Quinn. Catching on what was happening, Quinn caught Hazel by the leg and Hazel grabbed onto Dan's shirt. Monferno dug his one free arm into the side of the pit and they managed to stop their fall.

"Yay! We formed a link!" commented Ryo.

"Enough with that. Tell Monferno to pull us up!" cried Dan. Monferno tried inching up, but the four humans were just too heavy. The piece of rock that Monferno had grabbed onto broke off.

"Uh oh…" said Ryo as the four of them began falling again. They all screamed all the way down, but the pitfall began to flatten out, and it turn into a rock slide, a perfect transition as to ease their fall. The rockslide brought them through an opening. Apparently, the ground was not right under the opening. They fell a few more feet and hit the hard rock floor.

"Well, that hurt." said Quinn.

"Where are we?" said Hazel as she got up to look around. Even though Monferno was there, his flames didn't seem to lighten up the darkness in front of them. "There is a lot of echoing from our voices. Therefore this is probably a fairly large cavern we had just landed in. Ryo, tell Monferno to use ember straight up in the air." said Hazel.

Monferno shout out a ball of fire straight up. All four of them looked up to see if the ceiling could be reached. Right before the ember began to die out, the ceiling of the cavern could just be seen.

"From that height, I'd estimate the ceiling being around two hundred fifty feet tall?" said Hazel. "Well, let's get going. I feel like we're getting closer."

At the room where trainers were suppose to converge, sat the elite four members. A single applicant has not showed up and they were becoming impatient. "These trainers seem so incompetent. How can they take such a long time just to find a room in a cave." said Aaron.

"Be patient. This trial may not seem as easy as it looks. These tunnels are very disorientating, and there are many dangerous pokemon lurking around in the shadows." said Bertha. "These trainers have no idea the danger they are in. You cannot just get through this Competition with battling skills alone."

There was a flash of light, and a girl with an Alakazam appeared in the room. "Well, looks like we got our first applicant." said Lucian.

"Oh, finally! I used teleport to get here. Alakazam here has transported us to some weird parts of the cave, but we finally made it to the right place." exclaimed the girl.

"Where's your group?" asked Bertha.

"Um, my group?" asked the girl. "I left them behind when I used teleport. Alakazam can only teleport one other person."

Bertha sighed and wrote something down on paper. "There is a reason we force all the trainers to get into groups before the challenge. It shows your teamwork." said Bertha. "May I get your name, hun?"

"It's Lucy." she said.

Back with Ryo and the gang, they continued navigating through the large open caverns. They would constantly bump into stalagmites that were twenty feet tall. Ryo stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey, kid, why did you stop?!" Asked Dan.

Ryo's face grew serious. "There is a pokemon nearby." he said.

"What where?" cried Dan startled.

"Ryo, I don't hear anything. Are you sure?" said Hazel.

"Yes, I'm sure. And it is very big. Its, its right below us." said Ryo.

"EVERYONE JUMP BACK!" yelled Quinn as he dashed backwards. Startled, everyone else followed his command. Right when they got out of the way, the ground they were just standing on seconds ago burst open and out came a large ferocious Steelix.

"Monferno, use flame wheel!" shouted Ryo. Monferno jumped up and wrapped himself in fire. He than spun around in a circle and launched at the Steelix, hitting it straight in the face. The Steelix was knocked back and it let out a roar. It was very angry.

"Everyone, run to the right!" shouted Ryo. It was as if Ryo had read the Steelix's mind. It swung its iron tail at the four of them, but it missed them just by a few inches as all of them were able to dodge just in time from Ryo's warning. Steelix's tail smashed into the side of the cave, sending stalactites crashing to the ground.

"Gliscor, come on out." said Quinn. Out from his pokeball landed a Gliscor. "You know what to do." Quinn said to him.

"Glis-cor!" shouted the Gliscor as he prepared to attack.

"What is he going to do?" asked Hazel, but as she turned around to see what Quinn was doing, she noticed that he had summoned a Salamence.

"Everyone, jump on Salamence!" shouted Quinn. Ryo and Monferno hopped on, followed by Hazel, and then Dan jumped on afterward. Quinn gave the signal to Gliscor. Gliscor caused rapid movement from the ground, and before anyone could tell what was going on, they all began to feel the vibrations from the earth. It was so strong that they could all feel it in the air.

"Gliscor is using Earthquake!" shouted Hazel. "I never felt an earthquake this strong!" The ceiling began to cave in as the earthquake grew stronger.

"Alright, Gliscor, that's enough. Hop on!" shouted Quinn. The gliscor flew to Salamence and Salamence jetted away from the area as fast as he could. Large boulders were falling from the ceiling and Salamence did a great job maneuvering past all of them.

Dan looked back to see an avalanche of rocks approaching them. "Hurry, we're going to get crushed!" cried Dan.

"Brace yourselfs. We're going for an impact!" shouted Quinn.

Around ninety trainers had made it to the room with the elite four. They all waited for the time to run out. There was only a few minutes left. They all chattered amongst themselves, proud that they made it past the first trial, but the ground began shaking violently.

"Hey! What's happening?!" cried a random trainer.

"It's earthquake. Is a pokemon using Earthquake?" asked Flint.

Bertha was very shocked to feel the immense vibrations coming from the ground. "I never felt an earthquake this powerful. What's amazing is that whatever is using the move is very far away." she said.

After a minute or two, the rumbling finally settled down. As the trainers all just began to catch their breath, a large explosion at the side of the room sent trainers running in every direction."

"Everyone, calm down!" cried Bertha as she motioned toward the wall where the explosion happened. As all the trainers looked to see what it was, the depre dissipated and they saw a giant Salamence carrying four pokemon trainers.

"Did we make it in time?" asked Ryo as the buzzer just went off a second after.

"ZZZZZZAAANNNGGG!" It went.

Bertha was quite shocked to see that grandeur entrance. "Um yes, you made it in time." she said. Quinn commanded Salamence to land and he summoned him back into his pokeball. They walked up to Lucian as he asked for their names.

"It would've been nice if you four could have entered by means of the entrance we made for you." he said motioning towards the door to the room.

"Hey Quinn, how did you even know where to find this room?" asked Hazel.

"Well, let's just say that Salamence has quite the blood lust for humans. A bunch of humans gathered in one place is like a feast for Salamence." said Quinn as she stared at Hazel with a creepy expression.

"Ehh, you're spooky kid." said Dan as he shivered from the thought of how he was able to tame that Salamence.

Aaron walked up to the microphone in the room and said, "Congratulations everyone, for passing the first challenge. It seems like we have many talented people this time around. Out of two hundred people, half of the groups were able to make it here in this room. Now follow me back to the surface."

Aaron turned around and pressed a button. A large rock door opened up, revealing a smaller room with a metal floor. "Everyone, proceed into the room. It will be a little tight, for I didn't expect so many people to pass, but it will make do." he said.

All the applicants squeezed into the room. Aaron pressed another button and the metal platform underneath them began moving upwards. All the trainers looked up to see light shining in from the top. The elevator picked up speed and within a few seconds, the elevator platform shot out of the ground to the surface. All the trainers dispersed onto the coast smelling the beautiful fresh air, happy they were away from the musty darkness of the cave. Cynthia was outside to greet all the applicants.

"What is that!?" cried a trainer. Everyone looked up to see a large creature diving towards the island. Cynthia squinted toward the sky and saw a large dragon like pokemon flying towards.

"Everyone get cover! This is not a planned event!" shouted Cynthia. Everyone panicked and began finding a rock to hide under. The creature let out a loud roar and began driving dangerously close to the ground.

"That's, that's Lugia!" said Hazel.

"What?! You know what that thing is?" asked Dan.

"But, it's color…." began Hazel. But Ryo dragged her back.

"Hazel, we have to run away. That thing is dangerous." he said.

Ryo and the gang ran near the center of the Island, thinking that it was the safest spot. But Lugia was looking for something and that was his sole purpose of being there. He concentrated and found the location of the aura. It made a 180 degree turn and flew towards Ryo and the gang.


	7. Chapter 7: A Nice Cruise

"It's coming for us!" shouted Dan. Lugia was aiming for an attack when a figure appeared out of nowhere and bashed Lugia in the face. The impact made the Lugia flinch and he quickly rose up into the air and missed the humans. Ryo saw that it was a Garchomp.

"Rick!" shouted Ryo happily as he jumped forward and hugged the landshark. "Sorry I made you wait so long."

"Garr!" said Rick happily.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt your reunion, but Lugia is coming back for us!" shouted Hazel. Lugia used Aeroblast and sent a beam of heavy wind blowing towards them. "Hold on to something!" yelled Hazel.

"Salamence, come on out!" shouted Quinn. The large dragon pokemon appeared before the four of them. "Everyone, climb on!"

Each of them got on to Salamence's back. When everyone was on, Salamence flew off to the right, nearly escaping Lugia's aeroblast attack. They flew up higher just to be sure. Lugia chased after Salamence and used Extrasensory. The Extrasensory caused Salamence to roar in pain.

"Hey what's wrong with Salamence?" asked Dan.

"Lugia is using some sort of Psychic move to mess with his mind." said Quinn. "Come on Salamence, we need to get out of range!"

Lugia stopped in mid flight. It was strange. He could not sense Dialga's aura any longer. He was sure he felt it on that Salamence, but now the aura has disappeared. Inferring that Dialga had left, Lugia turned and flew off into the sky.

As the legendary pokemon disappeared, all the applicants slowly came out of their hiding places. "What the hell was that?!" yelled a bunch of trainers.

Cynthia looked up warily at the sky. She had never seen a pokemon like that before, could it have been undiscovered. Sensing that there was no more danger, Salamence landed on the ground and they all got off. Ryo and the gang began walking back to the coast.

"Hey, how did you know the name of that thing?" asked Dan.

Hazel took a deep breath and explained to him everything she believed about legendary pokemon.

"I thought legendary pokemon were myths!" said Dan.

"Well, was that a myth there?! Was that a myth that came to attack you?" asked Hazel. "But it was strange. By the legends, Lugia was suppose to be as white as snow. However, this Lugia had a dark color to its skin."

"What do you think he was after?" asked Quinn as he looked up at the sky. "If it was a reckless pokemon, it would have went to attack the closest humans in sight, which definitely was not us. But that Lugia looked in our direction and came just for us, specifically."

No one said a word about the topic, for it was quite unsettling to think about. As all the trainers were back at the coast, Cynthia began to speak. "I'm deeply sorry for that disturbance. We don't know why that pokemon was here and why it decided to attack. We have pokemon research gatherers working on it right now." she assured.

All the trainers began muttering. It was strange to see such a powerful pokemon. Perhaps legendary pokemon are very much real.

"Well, we should all be thankful that none of us are hurt. We have to put this event behind us, now, and get ready for the second event. The second event will take place on Crescent Isle, which is located farther North from Iron Island. Unlike Iron Island, however, Crescent Isle is full of lush vegetation. The whole island is covered by a dense forest. We will explain the challenge once we are there. But for now, we decided to treat all the applicants for their bravery in the first challenge." said Cynthia as she motioned toward a large ship docking behind them.

All the trainers began talking in excitement. "This is the largest cruise ship in Sinnoh. You will all be resting on this ship for one night as we head to Crescent Isle. Make sure to relax and have fun. You'll need it before the next challenge." said Cynthia. Everyone stared in awe at the large cruise ship. It was very long and very tall. All the trainers went to the labeled crates to retrieve their stored pokemon from the first challenge. The connecting bridges opened up and all a hundred applicants who had passed rushed into the large ship.

Back in the caves of Iron Island, the elite four were busy trying to rescue all those who didn't make it. A hundred people were lost in the caves and they were only able to retrieve thirty applicants….

The cruise ship began leaving Iron Island and was headed North to Crescent Isle. The first thing all the trainers did was head to the dining hall, where everyone ate their stomachs full and laughed and had a good time. It was as if they completely forgot that the Competition was not over yet. Dan left to meet up with older trainers, and Hazel left for the training room on the ship to train her pokemon.

"Ryo, looks like it's just you and me now." said Quinn.

"And don't forget about Rick!" mentioned Ryo, motioning towards the landshark next to them that was devouring his food.

"Do you always have to have him out all the time?" asked Quinn.

"Well, I don't have his pokeball, so I can't really do anything about it" said Ryo. "Maybe later, I can ask my Aunt for it." As dinner was over, the two of them walked to the side of a ship, and sat down on a bench next to the window. The two boys looked out into the darkness of the sea at night. Rick sat opposite from Ryo, as to not disturb the conversation between the two of them.

"So, Ryo, where are you from?" asked Quinn.

"Twinleaf town is my hometown." Ryo answered. "This is the first time I actually left that region of Sinnoh. I live with my Aunt and she was very reluctant to let me go on my journey earlier, and she forced me to take Rick along. But he's been really helpful."

"Really? I started my journey when I was ten years old. It amazes me, the idea of pokemon battling each other. I never thought that idea would appeal to me." said Quinn as he gazed out into the ocean.

"Why wouldn't it appeal to you?" asked Ryo curiously.

"I ran away from home when I started my journey. My mother was similar to your Aunt. Well, she wasn't really my mother. She only told me when I was seven, but I knew she wasn't my mother way before that." said Quinn. "When I was ten, I was at the age requirement to start my journey, but my mother did not want me to go. She said she wants me to stay for a few more years, but I ignored her and left anyways."

Quinn didn't answer Ryo's question, but that didn't matter. "Doesn't that worry your mother? That you ran away?" asked Ryo.

"No, she knows what I'm capable of. I doubt she thinks I will get hurt. She's just afraid what I will do to other people." said Quinn.

Ryo was not sure what Quinn meant by that, be he decided to change the topic. "So, where did you live before your journey?" asked Ryo.

"My mother has a cottage located just outside of Eterna City. That's where I lived." said Quinn. "I trained a lot of pokemon within those two years and I finally have an awesome team. I didn't really focus on getting gym badges and all that stuff these past two years. That's why I'm using this Competition to catch up. Plus, none of these people look that strong."

Cynthia was walking around the corner as he saw two boys talking to each other. He heard Quinn talking about how all the applicants didn't seem that strong. "Hey, kid. What's your name?" she asked Quinn.

The two boys turned around, surprised to see the champion of Sinnoh was talking to them. "I'm Quinn." he answered.

"And I'm Ryo!" added Ryo.

"Well, good evening, Quinn and Ryo. You think the applicants here aren't that outstanding? You don't want to be too arrogant, now, do you?" asked Cynthia.

"If there are people who are stronger than me, here, then I probably didn't meet them yet." said Quinn.

Cynthia caught the flash in Quinn's eyes. "Do you want to battle me. I can evaluate your battling skills." she said.

"Sure, I'd be honored to fight the champion." said Quinn. Cynthia led the two boys into a large room on the ship. It had a battlefield in it. Rick followed in after them.

"Is that your Garchomp?" asked Cynthia.

"No, that's Ryo's. His name is Rick." said Quinn.

"Oh, that's interesting. Maybe after Quinn, I can battle you, Ryo." she offered.

"Sure, I'd love to have a battle." said Ryo.

Quinn and Cynthia stepped into the trainer's box. Rick and Ryo stood by the side lines to watch. "Let's do a one on one, so as to make this quick. You have to get some sleep tonight so you will be well rested for the next challenge." said Cynthia.

"One on one will be enough." said Quinn.

"Milotic, come on out." Cynthia's milotic appeared on the battlefield.

"Greninja, show her what you're made of." said Quinn. Greninja appeared onto the battlefield as well.

"You may make the first move." offered Cynthia.

"If you say so. Greninja, use night slash!" Greninja pounced toward Milotic and disappeared into thin air. Cynthia's expression changed as she realized Quinn might be better than she thought. The Milotic was surprised, as she did not feel Greninja's presence. Then out of nowhere, Greninja reappeared in front of Milotic and slashed through her body. Milotic was knocked back quite a bit. It was a critical hit.

"Milotic, use Hydro pump!" shouted Cynthia.

"Water Shuriken!" shouted Quinn. Greninja swiftly turned around and threw a large water shuriken at Milotic's hydro Pump. The two moves ended up canceling out and formed a mist around the two pokemon. Quinn, however, did not stop there. Greninja ran up to the disorientated milotic. Greninja used waterfall and sent the Milotic flying through the air. She crashed back to the ground, but she got up and was still able to battle.

"Wow. Your Milotic is very durable." commented Quinn.

"I think that concludes our battle, I've seen enough of your battling skills. You surprised me, Quinn. For a twelve year old, you seem to have lots of battling experience. You think fast, and that is an important component in battling." commented Cynthia.

"Well, thank you." said Quinn as he walked off the stage.

"Is it my turn" asked Ryo innocently.

"Yeah, sure kiddo. Go crazy." said Quinn. Ryo ran onto the stage and grabbed one of his pokeballs.

"Aren't you going to fight me with your garchomp?" asked Cynthia.

"Rick? He's not my pokemon, but…." as Ryo was explaining Rick jumped onto stage with Ryo.

"It seems that your Garchomp wants to battle." said Cynthia. "Why not let him."

"Okay, fine." said Ryo as Rick got onto battling position. Cynthia withdrew Milotic.

"Garchomp, come on out!" Cynthia's garchomp appeared on the battlefield.

"Woah! You have a garchomp too?" asked Ryo. Quinn face palmed himself.

"You didn't know I had a garchomp? She is my signature pokemon. Where are you from?" she asked.

"Twinleaf Town." answered Ryo.

"Hmm, well that is a pretty remote town. Well, never mind that. Let's get this battle started. As always, you can make the first move." said Cynthia.

"Rick, go for dragon rush!" shouted Ryo.

"Garr!" growled Rick as he lunged toward Cynthia's garchomp. He launched himself at her with great speed, but Cynthia's garchomp easily blocked Rick's dragon rush with her claws. Rick had another trick up his sleeve. He used Dragon Tail, hitting Cynthia's Garchomp in the back. It did damage, but not enough to severely affect her.

"Garchomp, use Dragon Claw!" shouted Cynthia. Cynthia's garchomp knocked Rick's arms to the side and dragon clawed him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. "Follow it up with Dragon Rush!"

"Rick! Watch out!" Ryo shouted as Cynthia's Garchomp approached him. At the last second, Rick turned to face Cynthia's Garchomp. "Use attract!" shouted Ryo.

"What?" said Cynthia in surprise. "Your garchomp knows how to use attract?!"

On command, Rick used attract and Cynthia's Garchomp fell in love. Ryo grinned mischievously at Cynthia. Quinn couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

"Garchomp, snap out of it. Use Dragon Rush!" shouted Cynthia, but it was no use. Garchomp didn't listen to her.

"Now, it's our turn. Rick, use earthquake!"

"STOP!" shouted Cynthia.

"What? Why?" asked Ryo.

"We're on a ship right now. If you use earthquake, you can cause lots of damage to the ship."

"Oh, didn't think that one through." smiled Ryo embarrassingly.

"Garchomp, return." said Cynthia as she summoned her garchomp back into her pokeball. "Well, I have to admit, you got the better of me in that battle." she said. "I didn't expect you to use attract with garchomp. Even champions make mistakes, as you can see."

"Great fight, Rick!" said Ryo as he ran up and fist bumped him.

"Quinn, Ryo, the two of you seem very promising with your battling skills. I hope to see more of what you are capable of later in the Competition." said Cynthia. "You two should get some sleep now." She walked out of the room and left the two boys alone.

Ryo and Quinn began walking to their rooms. Ryo couldn't ignore it, so he asked, "Quinn, I couldn't help but notice that you were holding back."

"Hmm?" asked Quinn. "What do you mean?"

"When you were fighting Milotic, you didn't go all out. I felt you were holding back, for some strange reason."

"Really? I didn't expect you to notice. Yeah, I could have finished Milotic off if I used thunderbolt on her when the mist was up."

"Your Greninja knows Thunderbolt?" asked Ryo.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to reveal that to Cynthia, so I just played it safe." said Quinn. Quinn lied to Ryo. He didn't take that battle seriously at all. He could have finished the battle much earlier. They walked to their assigned room, 122, and went in. There were four beds and Hazel and Dan were already in the room.

"Oh, what were you guys doing so late?" asked Hazel.

"We battled with Cynthia and she told us we did great!" said Ryo excitedly.

"No way you guys did well against Cynthia." said Dan. "She's the champion. You too are just kids."

"If you don't believe us. Do you want the two of us to go and battle it out?" challenged Quinn.

"Uh, I...nah. I'm tired." said Dan nervously.

"So are all our rooms set up based on our groups from the first challenge?" asked Hazel.

"I guess. I thought I didn't have to see his face again." said Quinn motioning to Dan.

"Hey!" he said. "Watch who you're talking about!"

That night in room 122, the four of them slept very soundly. No, actually, one of them was having a nightmare. The person was floating at the side of Mt. Coronet, watching Arceus fighting a shadow Mewtwo. The image of Arceus decapitation kept repeating in the person's dream. The pokemon god dying was just too painful to relive. The promise to save all the legendaries never faded. The person having the nightmare sat up, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily, wondering how long he could last before someone found him out.

 **Author's Note: So, have you guys caught on? Dialga is apparently very close, as he is in a form of a human. Who do you think is Dialga? And as always, please comment on how the story is so far.**


	8. Chapter 8: Challenge 2 - Crescent Isle

Back at Stark Mountain, the dark lord was not happy with Lugia.

"You are a very incompetent. How could you lose Dialga? He is a massive pokemon!" yelled the dark lord.

"My lord, I was sure that I sensed his aura, but it disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared." said Lugia.

"Go back to your cell. I won't be needing you anymore, for a while." said the dark lord. The dark lord was not the only human who was behind the capture of all the legendaries. Five other individuals(the dark lord calls them Scouters)are currently also looking for Dialga. The scouters were very strong individuals who were able to assist with the capturing of all the legendaries on that day.

"Fortunately, I have a scouter who was at Iron Island on that day. He is a smart fellow. He will find Dialga for me." said the dark lord.

The next morning arrived faster than what most people expected. The cruise docked at the side of Crescent Isle, and all the applicants stepped off onto the grassy coast. Crescent Isle was much larger than it seemed. Not to mention, the whole island was covered by a forest, making the island seem even bigger. Ryo and the gang got of the cruise ship and awaited the introduction of the challenge.

"Good morning, everyone." said the announcer. "Challenge 2 of the Sinnoh Competition will be taking place here at Crescent Isle. Unlike the previous task, all trainers will be traveling by themselves, and alliances, though unofficial, can be formed. Each applicant will enter this dense forest by order of how fast they completed the first challenge. An applicant can be accompanied by one pokemon, and only one, so choose wisely."

All the trainers began planning what pokemon to bring. Rick poked Ryo in the back, reminding him of the promise he made earlier on the cruise.

"Fine. I'll choose you for this challenge." he said.

Hazel looked at her two pokemon, and eventually chose Grotle. Quinn chose Metagross.

"Now, let me explain the goal. Each applicant will be carrying a tag with their trainer ID on it. They are copies from when you registered. You have to where the tag around your neck. If you fail to meet this rule, you will be disqualified. The goal to past is that an applicant must collect at least three tags from different trainers to make it to the next challenge. Now, this is when your pokemon come into play. Your pokemon will have to protect you and fight off others who want to steal your tag, as well as getting other people's tags. The time limit will be twenty four hours, this time. You'll have to camp out during the night, but beware of other trainers."

The crowd became unhappy at the fact that they had to spend the night in the cold forest.

"There will be a hundred of you in this forest at the same time, so you will be bumping into other trainers quite frequently. Now, let the challenge begin!" shouted the announcer.

The first applicant walked up to the edge of the forest, handed the rest of her pokeballs to the announcer and disappeared into the woods. Ryo recognized the girl. It was lucy from before at Jubilife. Trainer after trainer entered the woods one at a time. After what seemed to be an hour of waiting, it was time for one from their group to go.

"I guess I'll go first." said Dan quickly as he took his zweilous and walked into the forest. Hazel went in next, and Quinn followed after.

"Ok, kid, you are the last applicant." the announcer said. Ryo handed his pokeballs to her and took his tag. "Good luck." said the announcer.

"Thanks!" said Ryo as he turned to face the forest. He took a deep breathe and walked in.

Ryo walked for quite a while, but he did not have any confrontations yet. Was it perhaps that he was walking the wrong way? No, it's not possible to walk the wrong way. It's an island.

Unlike Ryo, Hazel was already getting some action. As she was walking, she heard a rustle in the leaves of the trees around her. "Grotle, get out of the way!" she shouted. Grotle leaped out of the way right in time to dodge a flamethrower blasting towards him.

"Who's there?" shouted Hazel. A Magmortar jumped out of a tree, followed by his trainer. He was slightly older than Hazel, but not by much.

"Lucky us. Looks like we found a rookie trainer. Be a good girl and give me your tag." said the trainer.

"You think it will be that easy? Not without a fight!" said Hazel.

"You are dumber than you look. My pokemon is fire, yours is grass. This battle is screaming my victory." he said with a sly smile.

"My grotle might not be able to beat your Magmortar, but don't forget the goal of this challenge." said Hazel.

The trainer looked surprise. "What do you mean?" Without hesitation, Hazel went for the attack.

"Grotle, use grass knot!" she shouted. Grotle tripped the Magmortar causing him to fall hard on the ground. While Magmortar was distracted, Grotle swiftly used his vines to snatch the tag from around the trainer's neck.

The trainer was stunned. "What...how did you…"

"Sometimes, you have to think fast." said Hazel waving his tag in his face.

The trainer was infuriated. "Magmortar, get up and use flamethrower."

"Grotle, use hidden power!" shouted Hazel. Apparently, his hidden power was water. Grotle sent out a stream of water that collided with the fire, causing steam to appear everywhere. Using this opportunity, Hazel escaped with Grotle. As the mist subsided and the trainer saw that Hazel was gone, he slammed his fist on the ground, knowing his chances of winning has dropped drastically.

Hazel walked off holding her first stolen tag. "One down, two to go." she said.

Quinn was walking along when he spotted a group of three trainers walking together. It was probably an alliance. They were all guys, and they all looked around the age of late teens.

"Hello." said Quinn casually as he approached the three trainers. They looked back to see a twelve year old boy with a metagross. "How about you all give me your tags."

"Hey, guys, looks like we got ourselves a little joker." said the tallest one with a Krookodile.

"Your metagross will do nothing against our pokemon, they are all dark type." said another who had a Scrafty.

"Hey, we're in luck. Looks like we can get a free tag." commented the last who had a Houndoom.

Quinn stared at them with a change in expression. "Is it really you who are lucky?" he asked. Ominously, the three boys began to feel a chill down their necks. Even the dark type pokemon began to shiver.

"Do, do you fe...feel that?" asked a trainer. "Who is this kid." All of a sudden, the trainer watched as each of their pokemon dropped to the ground.

"What's happening?" asked the tallest one. They didn't even see the metagross attacking.

"It's called Hammer arm. A fighting move." said Quinn. The three trainers were surprised to hear his voice from behind them. They all spun around to see Quinn next to his Metagross, swinging there three tags in his hands.

The boys looked down and realized that all three of their tags have been taken. "How, how did you get our tags?!" said one of them.

"Metagross's psychic abilities might not work on your pokemon, but they surely can work on humans." said Quinn with a sly smile. "Good Luck", spited Quinn as he then swiftly disappeared again into thin air. The three pokemon trainers couldn't help but just stare with gaping mouths.

Ryo was beginning to feel tired. The day was passing by and it was getting close to evening. But, he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a yell of distress. Ryo picked up speed and began running to where the sound came from. Rick followed close behind. Ryo reached the side of clearing and hid behind shrubbery. It was Dan! He was pinned next to a tree by a much older trainer, and he was demanding something from him. He seemed to be around mid twenties and he had glossy red hair. Ryo figured that it was a dire situation, as he saw Dan's zweilous was defeated and fainted on the ground. Ryo felt something very dark emanating from the older trainer, but he wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Without thinking, Ryo jumped out of his hiding place. "Hey! What are you doing to him!" he yelled. The man saw Ryo jump out into the clearing, immediately catching his attention. He let go of Dan and he fell to the ground.

The man walked over to Ryo and smiled sinisterly. "What's your name, little boy." he said condescendingly.

"I'm Ryo." he said. Something about him made Ryo feel the creeps. Rick growled for the man to stay back and was ready for the attack.

"Your Garchomp is itching to fight." he said eyeing Rick. That made Rick even more aggravated.

Rick couldn't control himself, so he dashed forward and tried to claw the man. With unusual human speed, the man jumped back and tossed out a pokeball. In front of him, appeared a Dragonite. The man's dragonite looked really strong, but Rick didn't care. He jumped up in the air for a dragon rush. Instead of trying to dodge, the Dragonite caught Rick in mid flight. Rick tried struggling free, but Dragonite had a very strong grip on his body. The dragonite began squeezing Rick, harder, and harder. Rick cried out in roars of agony.

"Rick!" cried Ryo, Ryo couldn't watch any longer, he grabbed a large stick and leaped forward. He striked the dragonite in the back with the stick. It didn't hurt Dragonite at all, but it annoyed him. Still holding onto Rick, he turned toward Ryo, ready to use Dragon Tail on him.

"Don't kill him, stupid." said the man. Dragonite obeyed him and stopped his attack. The man walked up to Ryo and studied him. It seemed he found what he was looking for.

"I like you, Ryo. You seem to show lots of courage. Risking your own life to save your pokemon and friends." he said. "I'll give you three of my tags so you can make it to the next challenge." He handed Ryo three tags from random trainers. "And I'll also give three to your friend." he said as he placed three tags in front of Dan.

Ryo was surprised by how generous he was. Why was he doing this? "You won't have enough tags for yourself." he said.

"Ryo, I have twenty tags. That is the least you have to worry about." he said. "And by the way, my name is Axel." he said as he began walking off.

"Hey, Axel!" said Ryo. "I don't need your stupid tags! I want to earn them myself! You can have them back!" He began walking up to Axel. Axel frowned at his actions. He turned around to face Ryo.

"Kid, let me make myself clearer." he said. He walked up to Ryo and kicked him in the stomach. The sudden attack completely caught Ryo off guard and he was sent flying to the ground, holding his stomach from the pain. Rick was infuriated that Axel hurt Ryo and struggled more to free himself from Dragonite. "I want you to pass this round, so you can return the favor by beating me in battle later." he said. "Trust me, we will be seeing each other again." With that, Axel left the clearing. Dragonite released Rick from his grasp and left with Axel. Rick was tempted to try and attack them again, but he was more worried about Ryo. He went to him to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine, Rick." said Ryo as he struggled to get to his feet. The kick disorientated him, but he was better now. "You're not hurt, are you?" he asked Rick. Dragonite seemed very strong.

"Garr!" said Rick, as to say that he was fine as well. Ryo walked over to Dan. He wasn't really his friend, the way Axel kept repeating, but he knew him long enough to care. Ryo bent down and shook him. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

Dan finally seemed to have waken up. He stared blankly at Ryo and then saw Rick and jumped back in shock. "Ahh! You have to warn me when that landshark is so close!" he said.

"What was that man talking about? Why was he fighting you?" Ryo asked.

Dan took a deep breath. "At first, I thought he was just a normal applicant, so I used Zweilous to fight him to get his tag. He easily beat me, and instead of taking my tag, he wanted to know where Dialga was. I have no idea what a Dialga is, so I didn't have an answer. He then proceeded to threaten me and attack me, thinking I was lying to him. He knew I wasn't him, but he said he smelled his aura on me, which meant that I must've been close to him recently."

"He's looking for Dialga?" asked Ryo. "Dialga is a legendary pokemon who disappeared with the rest of the legendary pokemon. He is a massive pokemon, standing at a height of around 20 feet. Why would he think Dialga would be here?"

"He said we were close to it, at some point. But I doubt we would miss a creature that huge. And I doubt that creature even exists. Was he perhaps talking about that creature at Iron Island?" asked Dan.

"If he said he was looking for Dialga, it couldn't have been that creature. That creature was known as Lugia. And, I wouldn't be so quick to say that Dialga isn't real." said Ryo. "Here, Axel left you three tags from other trainers so you could pass."

Dan easily accepted it, but he asked, "Why would he give this to us?" Ryo didn't have an answer.

"It's getting late. Because of Axel, we have now met all the requirements to pass this challenge. Let's just get some sleep. We'll head back to the coast tomorrow morning." said Ryo. With that, Dan, Ryo and their pokemon went to sleep.

Quinn was walking along the in the forest. Evening has fallen upon the island, and now it was getting darker. He sensed someone was spying on him in the trees. He felt the person's presence very quickly. He continued walking, pretending that he was oblivious. He casually bent down and picked up a rock. Then with great accuracy, he turned around and threw the rock at the trees, hitting the spy.

"Ow!" cried the sound of a girl's voice. Knowing she's been caught, she jumped out with her Alakazam.

"What are you doing spying on me?" asked Quinn.

"I'm here to take your tag." she said.

"Well, aren't you not suppose to tell me that?" he asked. He examined her and noticed that she was the first person to enter the forest. "What's your name?"

"I'm Lucy." she said. Lucy was determined to get the tag from him. She looked to Alakazam and gave him the signal. Alakazam began using his psychic powers to toy with Quinn. Lucy walked up and blatantly reached for Quinn's tag. Quinn smacked her hands out of the way.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Quinn. Lucy was shocked to see Quinn unaffected by Alakzam's illusions.

"How did you see….Alakazam was…." she was without words.

Quinn figured what Lucy was trying to do. He smiled slyly. "Psychic tricks do not affect me." he said.

"How?! What kind of person are you?" asked Lucy.

"I'm just your average pokemon trainer." taunted Quinn, giving the signal to metagross. Lucy was shocked to see that Quinn had disappeared before her eyes. And then the next moment, she found herself tied to a tree with Alakazam tied with her.

"Hey, how did you…." she began.

"Now that is how you create an illusion." said Quinn. "Good luck with the second challenge." he said as he began walking away.

"Hey, you, come back here! Untie me!" Lucy began yelling, but Quinn ignored her. He knew that if you couldn't return to the coast by morning, you would not pass. Quinn continued walking and eventually came upon a rather tall tree. He withdrew Metagross and began climbing the tree to the top. He looked out onto the horizon. The sun was now gone, and it was getting late. He laid back on the highest branch and went to sleep.

All the other trainers were also getting tired. The ones who have lost their tags, and had failed to gather others, went to sleep without worry, for they have nothing to lose. For that night, the applicants did not have to worry about night time robbers.

All the trainers awoke and started heading back to the coast. The challenge was over and no one was allowed to steal tags anymore. Eventually, the applicants arrived back at the coast where two boats were awaiting them. One was a larger boat that was presumably for people who didn't pass. Naturally, some applicants got lost in the forest, so they were disqualified. Each trainer registered the amount of tags they obtained. After all the numbers were in, the announcer was ready to reveal who passed and who did not.

"Starting off with the people who just managed to pass, with three tags are: Dan, Ryo, Maria, Jackson, Peter, Larry, Jared, and Florence." said the announcer.

With that, Ryo, Dan, and the other six contestants walked onto the smaller boat.

"Now, all others who passed have varying amounts of tags that they obtained. Two people passed with four tags: Hazel and Terrance."

Ryo saw Hazel walk on the boat. "Yay! You made it!" said Ryo.

"I'm glad you made it too." said Hazel. "But how did you?" she said looking towards Dan. Ryo explained everything that happened to her.

"Four people passed with six tags. They are Michael, Quinn, Sarah, and Ben. And the person who passed with nine tags is Megan. The person with the most tags, totaling to fourteen, is Axel!" All the trainers clapped for him, as that was a record breaking amount. Objectively, collecting only three tags was enough. The only advantage to obtaining more is eliminating chances of other contestants to get tags.

As all the people who passed got on the boats, all the losers sailed back to Jubilife on the larger boat. Quinn reunited with Hazel and Ryo. "We all made it to the next round! Isn't that amazing." said Ryo.

It would have been a pleasant boat ride to the next location, but Axel kept on staring at Ryo, and it was kind of creeping him out. Ryo told Quinn about what happened with Axel. Quinn didn't show it on his face, but he knew trouble was coming. He kept an eye out for Axel.

Everyone on the boat seemed very composed and they all seemed to be pro trainers. Dan felt pretty intimidated, for he knew he got this far because of a fluke.

"Contestants, there is only sixteen of you left. We will be going on to the final phase, also known as Challenge 3. It will be a tournament style event, where each player has to battle another on a battlefield. This is where you can truly let your battling skills shine. There will be no breaks. Challenge Three will begin later today, once we get there." said the announcer.

The atmosphere on the boat was very tense. All the applicants eyed one another, trying to figure out their opponents for the battle.

Back at Stark Mountain, the Dark Lord was awaiting the news of Dialga's whereabouts. The other four scouters were at Stark mountain with him, awaiting his commands. "Sir, should we also help find Dialga? One Scouter might not be enough to do the job." said one of the Scouters.

"No, I believe in Axel. I'm sure he would bring me valuable information." said the Dark Lord.

He was watching a battle between Yveltal and Ho-oh. After a long battle, Ho-oh fell to the ground, defeated. "That was unsatisfying. Fetch me Kyogre and Rayquaza. They should provide a better battle." said the dark lord.

As the two legendaries appeared in front of the dark lord, they bowed down. They were cursed, so they could only follow the commands given by him. "Fight each other." he demanded. Without hesitation, the Kyogre used Ice Beam on Rayquaza while Rayquaza used Outrage." The dark lord watched the two legendaries battling it out. He enjoyed it. The legendaries would get hurt, but he didn't care. To him, they were just pawns he could spare. The only thing troubling him was the fact that he still does not have control over one legendary.

"Dialga, where the hell are you?" he thought as he watched the battle. Rayquaza crashed to the ground from the second ice beam that Kyogre had landed. Kyogre had won the match.

 **Author's Note: Please comment on how the story is so far. Especially those who are following. It will be greatly appreciated.**


	9. Chapter 9: Challenge 3 - Tournament

The boat with the top sixteen applicants had arrived at the location for the final challenge. They had returned to mainland Sinnoh, and from their maps, they could only tell they were somewhere near Floaroma Town. The trainers were escorted off the boat and they walked along a winding path through the woods on the coast.

All the applicants were silent and barely talked to one another. There was a constant awkward silence lingering through the air. Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Hey, why is it so quiet? Shouldn't we all be happy that we made it this far?" asked Ryo. All eyes turned toward him.

"Yes. It's quite amazing how a little kid like you was able to make it this far in the competition" said a trainer by the name of Florence.

"You would be wise to not judge a book by its cover. Perhaps, you might find out that he is even more skilled than you." said Axel. "Right, little boy?" This time, Axel was talking to Ryo and Ryo couldn't help but look away as he gave him that same creepy smile.

"We are you so interested in this boy. What are you, a pedophile?" said Florence. "Yeah, it might have been fine for one young kid to make it this far, but look around. Half of these top sixteen trainers are edging toward the younger side. It makes me feel ashamed of what the Sinnoh Competition had turned into."

It was true. It's time to give more information about all the applicants that are left. The one walking up front is Ryo, who I'm sure you are quite familiar with now. Behind him walks Peter, who is a thirteen year old boy. Slightly older, but still very young for the competition. Behind him was Maria, a girl who looked to be in her late teens. Behind her was a pair who were twin brothers: Larry and Jared. They were both around fourteen. Behind them was Hazel, who you know, followed by Dan, who was also in his late teens. Behind him was Florence, followed by Axel. They were both older trainers who looked to be in their mid twenties. Behind them was Quinn, who was around Ryo's age. Jackson and Sarah followed, who were also both thirteen. Ben and Megan seemed to be a couple, who seemed to be in their early twenties. And in the very back were Peter and Terrance, who seemed at least over thirty. As you can see, the ages vary wildly.

"I'm saying all you younger trainers don't know the trouble you are getting into. Especially this far in the competition. You're probably all too naive to realize." said Florence.

This time, Dan stood up. "Hey! Calm down. You don't have to go insulting everyone." he said.

"And don't even get me started with you. I saw you during the second challenge and you are a complete failure of a trainer!" he said to Dan.

This fired Dan up, and he went to slug Florence in the face. "You probably shouldn't do that, Dan." said Quinn from behind him.

"What?! This guy's asking for it." said Dan.

"I agree, he's a total jerk. But you will be the one disqualified if you start a fight." said Quinn. Dan couldn't argue with that. So he refrained from punching and treaded along, without another word.

"Me? A jerk?" muttered Florence under his breathe. He was starting to dislike the twelve year old walking behind him. However, Quinn didn't care about his relation with the other trainers. He couldn't stop looking at Axel. He sensed that the man had many secrets. But then again, so did he….

After a long trek, the group came upon a large domed building. All sixteen trainers entered and they were greeted by all the champions from different regions. There was Alder, from Unova, Lance, from Johto and Kanto, Diantha, from Kalos, Steven, from Hoenn, and of course, Cynthia. They were all seated towards the back of the stadium.

"This place is a battle arena." said Hazel. "The final challenge must be a traditional pokemon battling competition."

Cynthia stood up and approached the newly arrived applicants. "Congratulations on making it to the final challenge. All sixteen of you have showed great skill and bravery by passing the previous challenges. However, this phase will truly test your skills, and would certainly mark the difference between each of your battling experiences." she said.

All the applicants entered the arena. They stared in awe at the supersized battlefield in front of them. The ceiling was very high up, so it would also make a perfect place for air battles.

"All of you, please come forward and pick out a number from the box. The box contains slips of paper numbered one through sixteen. Trainers who have one and two, will be paired up, three and four, will be paired up, and so on. Remember, this challenge will not end with one victor. Eight applicants will make it to the end. Therefore, all of you will only battle once. The winner will enter the winning eight, and the loser will sadly be eliminated from receiving the prize of the eight badges." Cynthia announced to the group.

"It'd be unlucky for someone to make it this far, and lose here. All that hard work will be for nothing." said Hazel.

"Yeah, but eight people among us will have to take that fall." said Quinn.

"These battles will only be one on one! Choose which pokemon you want to use wisely, for you cannot change that decision once it's made." said Cynthia.

All the applicants began deciding what pokemon to use. Ryo looked up at Rick and said, "Sorry, but I really want to use Ace. He was the first pokemon I caught, and he hasn't been getting any action." If you forgot, Ace is the Starly Ryo was able to capture with his bare hands. He had evolved into a Staravia the week before the start of the Sinnoh Competition. Rick was reluctant, but he knew that Ryo had to give his pokemon a chance to battle.

"You sure this is a good time to be using Staravia? Wouldn't Rick be more reliable. He is a fully evolved pokemon, and this one on one battle depends on a strong pokemon." said Quinn.

"I think Staravia would do just fine." said Ryo.

"I guess there's no talking sense into you, huh." commented Quinn as he decided what pokemon he was going to use. He chose Charizard.

After all the trainers decided what pokemon they were going to use, each walked up to the box and pulled out a random slip of paper. The numbers from each applicant were recorded and the matches were made.

"Alright, everyone. Time for the third challenge to begin! The first match will be…...Ryo vs Florence!"

"This is going to be an easy win." said Florence, as he proceeded up the steps. Ryo followed behind him as they both stepped into their trainer's boxes. The referee stood at the side of the battlefield.

"This will be a one on one battle. When one pokemon is unable to battle, the victory goes to the trainer of the other pokemon. Now, let the battle begin!" shouted the ref.

"Ace! I choose you!" said Ryo as his Staravia appeared on the battlefield.

"Drapion, show him what you're made of!" said Florence as he summoned upon a large scorpion pokemon.

"Damn. This battle looks very one sided. I like the kid, but it seems that a miracle must happen for Ryo to win." said Dan.

"Well, we'll just have to see." said Hazel. Axel watched intently at the two trainers. He expected a good fight.

"Drapion, use cross poison." said Florence. For his size, Drapion moved with great speed. Ace was fast as well, for he saw the move coming from a mile away. Ace flew up towards the sky, dodging Drapion's attack.

"Ace, use wing attack!" shouted Ryo. Ace flew down toward Drapion, ready to strike its head with his wing. Florence waited, however. He watched as Ace closed his distance.

"Now! Drapion, use ice fang!" shouted Florence. Ace was too close. He could not dodge in time. Drapion turned his head around and chomped down onto Ace's body. Ace cried out in pain as he felt the ice fang sink into his body. It was definitely a critical hit. Drapion released his bite and Ace flew away. Ryo noticed that Ace was beginning to lag from the attack. He wasn't flying as fast anymore. It was probably due to the fact that ice attacks were effect against flying pokemon.

"Follow it up with Night Slash!" Drapion moved across the field like a shadow and struck Ace right in the back, sending the bird crashing toward the ground. Drapion wasn't done yet. He landed on top of Ace and pulled him out of the ground.

"Ace!" yelled Ryo. He was completely helpless. Ace was trapped in Drapion's grip. He couldn't move or attack. Drapion proceeded to fling Ace across the room, sending him crashing into the wall. Ace was hurt, but he wasn't ready to give up. He saw the look in Ryo's eyes, and knew that he needed to win this battle for him. Ace flew out of the wall and looked even more determined to fight.

"Huh! Your bird seems to be more durable than I thought." said Florence.

"Ace, use double team!" shouted Ryo. Ace flew up high in the air and created after images of himself. To be precise, he created six. Drapion was disorientated, as he tried to spot which one was the real Staravia.

"That trick won't work on us. Drapion, use acupressure!" Drapion roared as his accuracy doubled. With great agility, Drapion leaped up into the air toward the Staravias. He used his claw and bashed it on top of Ace's head!

All sixteen spectators stood up as they saw how Drapion was able to correctly predict where Staravia was. Ace fell to the ground from the hit. "Now, go in for a crunch!" shouted Florence.

"Ace, get out of there!" shouted Ryo. Ace heard Ryo's voice, so reacting to his command, he quickly flew back off the ground and dodged the incoming Drapion.

"Use Venoshock!" shouted Florence. Drapion sent out streaks of poison from his body, all of them hitting Ace head on. Ace was now covered in poison, and Drapion didn't waste another second. He jumped up and used Crunch, landing the hit as Staravia was distracted from the poison. Ace screeched as he began falling. He was about to faint, but he held on. Ace shook of the pain and sustained his flight.

Now Florence was getting angry. "Why won't you go down!" he shouted. "Drapion, cross poison!" Drapion lunged forward and struck Ace in the chest. "Again! Again!" shouted Florence like a maniac. Ryo watched as Ace was getting hurt. He realized that Ace was staying in battle for him.

"Ace, I…!" Ryo began, but Ace looked back and eyed Ryo, as if telling him not to give up. Ryo understood completely and looked back at Florence. "We will never give up! You can strike us down again and again, but we will always come back for another round! Ace, use brave bird!"

"Drapion, use your claws to block him!" shouted Florence. The two pokemon collided, awaiting who would give in first.

"Ace, you can do it!" shouted Ryo. With that, Ace let out a ferocious screech and broke through Drapion's block, landing the hit! Drapion was pushed back, but he didn't look too damaged from the attack. Florence couldn't help but notice Ryo's determination. It struck him somewhere deep, as if reminding him of what he was once like as a child. Drapion was awaiting for his trainer to give another command, but he wasn't saying anything. Florence could see Ace was going to faint from another attack. The bird was flying hazardously and looked very fatigued.

"I give up!" said Florence all of a sudden. There was a long silence, a shocking silence. Cynthia stood up from the Champions table.

"Florence, are you saying you yield and admit defeat? You do realize that by doing so, you have eliminated yourself from the winnings." said Cynthia.

"Yes." said Florence. "I give up. I just can't seem to find a way to faint that Staravia of his." he said as he walked off the battlefield. Ryo stared in shock as well.

"Hey! That's not fair! You can't do that!" shouted Ryo. Florence stopped dead in his tracks, as if he didn't believe what he was saying.

"I want to win by defeating you, not because you just gave up!" shouted Ryo.

Florence turned around, and his face was red. "Look, kid! Take the win and get off the stage! Don't push your luck! I can easily go around the region getting the eight badges, but I doubt you could before this year's Sinnoh League arrives. So take that as a present. Don't make me change my mind." With that, he took his pokemon and left the dome building. Ryo was reluctant to take the cheap victory, but the alternative was too not win, which he didn't want either, so he accepted the win and got off the battlefield.

As Florence was walking back to civilization, he thought back to what he had just done, giving up his chance of an instant ticket to the Sinnoh League. He knew that Ryo did not stand a chance. Florence had won two leagues before. He was a very experienced pokemon trainer. But Ryo, though he lacked the experience, showed lots of potential. His gift to Ryo was to allow him to blossom into a great pokemon trainer. And the Sinnoh League was the perfect place for him to get exposure to the world of battling.

"Wow, Ryo. You showed a lot of spirit in that battle." said Quinn as Ryo sat back down in the bleachers.

"But, he was getting beaten up the whole time!" said Dan.

"I can't wait for my battle. I'm going to destroy whoever battles me." said Quinn. Axel walked by the exit of the dome building and secretly motioned for Quinn to follow him. It was very shady, but Quinn knew something was up. He quickly left the bleachers and followed Axel out the door. Ryo was the only one to notice Quinn leave, and he couldn't help but stare as he disappeared out the door.

"The next battle will be…..Hazel vs Ben!" shouted Cynthia.

Ben was excited to get some action. He was an experienced trainer who has also been in other regions. He took one look at Hazel and knew she was a rookie. The two of them walked up to the battlefield, each taking a side. The ref walked up, going over the same rules as before. "Now, let the battle begin!" shouted the ref.

"Torterra, come on out!" shouted Hazel as a large tortoise pokemon appeared on the battlefield. Ryo was quite surprised to see that Hazel's Grotle has evolved. It must have happened during the second challenge.

"Typhlosion, your up!" said Ben as he appeared on the battlefield. Typhlosion was pumped and let out a burst of heat around himself, showing Torterra that he meant business. The type match up was not in Hazel's favor, but she seemed unaffected by the situation.

"Typhlosion, use flamethrower!" Typhlosion jumped up and spat fire towards Torterra.

"Use protect!" shouted Hazel. Torterra was a slow pokemon, so relying on a shield was a good call. The flamethrower was headed for Torterra, but it was deflected off an energy field. "Now, use Frenzy Plant!" Vines shot out of the ground, heading towards Typhlosion. Typhlosion was fast and swift. He was able to jump around the vines and dodge all the incoming attacks.

All the while dodging, Typhlosion was also closing the distance between the two of them. As Torterra was using Frenzy plant to hit Typhlosion, he was getting closer and closer to him, ready for an attack of his own. Hazel realized what Ben was up to. Typhlosion was now right in front of Torterra.

"Now, use flamethrower!" said Ben, as he was sure this time he will hit, because Torterra couldn't use protect right away.

"Stone Edge." said Hazel. Torterra let out a roar and stomped onto the ground, sending jagged rocks shooting up from the ground. Typhlosion was about to release the fire from his mouth, but the rocks came up out of nowhere, bashing into his stomach. Typhlosion cried out in pain as he was thrown upward from the impact. Typhlosion quickly recovered from the blow and jumped back.

"I didn't think I would have to use this." said Ben. "Typhlosion, use Eruption!"

"Everyone, brace yourselves." warned Cynthia. Typhlosion let out a loud roar as he exploded in a furious eruption. The heat was intense and all the spectators felt the room become very hot. Ryo felt the ground shaking. Was the eruption literally causing the ground to vibrate? Soon, the room was filled with a fiery burst and everyone covered their eyes from the heat wave that followed after.

As the move was done and the smoke from the fire subsided, everyone stared at the center of the battlefield. Typhlosion collapsed onto the floor and Torterra was standing there, just fine.

"Typhlosion is unable to battle! Therefore Hazel is the winner!" shouted the ref.

Ben stared in disbelief. He was sure that eruption should have won him the battle. "H…..How?" he stuttered.

"You think we would just stand there and watch you use a powerful move on us? I told Torterra to use earthquake while you used Eruption. Did you not feel the vibrations from the ground? Typhlosion was standing right at the center of impact for earthquake."

"But, but how? Even if your earthquake did hit. Typhlosion's eruption should have also hit…." said Ben.

"Oh, the eruption did hit. My torterra was just able to withstand the attack. Torterra won't go down with one move." said Hazel. Ben was completely speechless. He looked at the thirteen year old girl standing before him. She was strange. She was almost too calm throughout the battle. It seems that Hazel had the same mindset as himself when the battle started. She knew that she would win.

Ben walked off the battlefield in defeat. "Wow, you did great!" said Ryo as Hazel sat down in the bleachers.

"Oh, thanks." said Hazel. "Hey, where's Quinn?" she asked looking around.

"I don't know." said Ryo.

Meanwhile, outside, Axel was privately talking to Quinn.

"What do you want?" asked Quinn.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just here to inform you. I thought it would be in your best interest to know." said Axel. He bent down and whispered something in Quinn's ears. Slowly, the color was beginning to disappear from Quinn's face as he listened. His expression changed drastically. His arms fell to his side as his determination to win the tournament has left him, so suddenly.

"Do you understand?" said Axel as he stood up. Quinn couldn't respond, as he was too far in shock and dread as to say anything.

"I will take that as a yes." said Axel as he entered the dome building. Quinn seemed to have stood there for a good minute or two before turning around and leaving into the woods. He never returned to the dome building.

Back on the battlefield, Cynthia announced the next match. "Quinn vs Peter!" she shouted. Peter got onto the battlefield, but Quinn wasn't coming up. "Quinn?" repeated Cynthia. Again, no answer. It was then that Ryo realized something was wrong. Where was Quinn? He wouldn't just ditch a match like this. It wasn't like him. Ryo kept looking out the door, hoping that Quinn would walk in, but all he saw was that Axel has returned to his seat, but Quinn was not in sight.

"Quinn? If you don't walk up now, you'll be forfeiting the match!" warned Cynthia. The champion was quite disappointed, herself. She had saw Quinn's battling skills back on the cruise and was looking forward to studying him more.

"Hey, where the hell is that kid?" asked Dan. All the applicants looked around, but Quinn was not there. An announcer ran into the building at that moment.

"The applicant named Quinn has forfeited the match! He says he is going home!" said the announcer. All the trainers began muttering and whispering. Why would a contestant this far in the competition just leave?

Cynthia let out a sigh. "Peter has won this match by default. Moving on, we have Sarah vs Maria!" said Cynthia.

"The kid must have been a coward."

"Yeah, he probably knew he was going to lose."

Ryo clenched his fists as he sat through all the insults being thrown at Quinn. He knew Quinn would never do something like that. He was a good... no, excellent trainer. He also seemed very outgoing. There was no way he would ever leave without a fight. The problem was, as Ryo realized, that's exactly what happened. But why? Ryo looked up to see Axel, smirking.

The rest of the battles went by really fast. Ryo couldn't enjoy them. He was too occupied with troubling thoughts. Why did Quinn leave? After a match and another ended, it was now time to announce the winners.

"Congratulations to all eight of you! Dan, Hazel, Axel, Ryo, Peter, Sarah, Jackson, and Terrance, you eight have have won the Sinnoh Competition, and will be receiving all eight badges of Sinnoh!" announced Cynthia. As each winner walked up to the champion's table, one of the champions handed them a case filled with the eight badges. Ryo went up to Lance, and he handed him one of the cases. Even as Ryo took the prize, he felt empty. He was disappointed that Quinn had left them.

"Ryo, you did great. You showed lots of perseverance and determination in your battling." complimented Lance.

"Thanks. That means a lot from a champion." said Ryo. Ryo looked down at the eight shiny badges in his case.

"Now, remember, This year's Sinnoh League will be starting in a month. I suggest you all prepare and train for the event. You might have won the Sinnoh Competition, but the league will have visiting trainers from all around the world. Don't underestimate the opponents." reminded Cynthia.

Axel was walking out the door. Ryo walked up to him and grabbed him by the wrist. "What did you say to him?" asked Ryo. Ryo's face had darkened. Axel was surprised by his serious nature.

" I don't know what you're talking about." said Axel calmly. He tried pulling away, but Ryo's grip was surprisingly strong.

" **What** did you say to him?" said Ryo, louder this time. Everyone in the building began looking at the two of them. Axel stared down at Ryo, as if challenging his stare, but Ryo wasn't backing down. Axel pulled with great strength and freed himself from Ryo's grab.

"If you want to know, go to him, yourself. You heard the announcer. He was headed home." said Axel frowning at Ryo as he left the building.

Hazel walked up behind Ryo. "Isn't it great? We both made it to the end. I guess I was right, listening to you." she said. Ryo wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. All he did was stare out the door where Axel had left. There was a very dark aura on that man, and Ryo felt it.

"Ryo!" shouted Hazel, snapping him out of it. "Oh, Hazel. What is it?" he asked.

" _What is it?_ What's wrong with you? And do you know why Quinn left?" she asked.

"I don't know." said Ryo, pausing. "But I know what we have to do. Hazel, we're going to Quinn's home. I want him to travel with us."

 **Author's Note: So, what do you think Axel said to Quinn? What is Axel after, and did he find what he was looking for? Please comment on what you think and review how the story is so far. A user by the name of Pokemon Fans have been commenting on a lot of chapters, and that is greatly appreciated. I hope more of my readers can comment on my story.**


	10. Chapter 10: To be There for a Friend

The ceremony for the winners went by fast. Ryo didn't want to stay there too long. He wanted to find Quinn. After all the trainers spoke with the champions, the competition was officially over. Ryo left the dome building immediately, and Hazel and Dan followed after him.

"Hey! Ryo! What's the rush? Where are you going?" asked Dan.

"He wants to find Quinn. He did leave very suddenly." said Hazel.

Ryo remembered his conversation with Quinn back on the cruise. He had mentioned that he lived in Eterna City. "Do you know the way to Eterna City?" asked Ryo.

"Well, I'm new to this region." said Dan. "I wouldn't know." Rick tapped Ryo on the shoulder, motioning for him to get on his back.

"Do you know the way, Rick?" asked Ryo. Rick nodded and began jumping up onto the trees. The trees around them were large with thick branches, so Rick's weight wasn't a problem. He reached the top of the tree line and scanned the radius. He heard the sound of civilization near, toward the south. Rick jumped back down and beckoned for the three of them to follow him.

Soon, they arrived at the nature filled, Eterna City. People were walking down the streets and there were many stores that littered the town. At the corner was a bike store, where most trainers seem to have gathered.

"So, why did we come here?" asked Hazel.

"Quinn lives here." said Ryo.

"Do you know where in the city?" asked Dan.

"No." said Ryo bluntly.

Dan was now irritated. "Come on! You're telling me you dragged me down to this place, and you don't even know where he lives?" he shouted.

"All Quinn told me was that he lived just outside of Eterna City, in a small cottage." said Ryo as he proceeded down the city streets. Hazel and Dan reluctantly followed. Ryo walked up to a shopkeeper cleaning his windows.

"Excuse me, but do you know of any residents who live just outside this city?" asked Ryo.

"I heard of a house near the north side of town. I believe you can find someone living there. There's a nice little garden around there in the woods. A lot of people from the city go to visit the little garden. It's strange how the garden seems to be kept in a very nice and clean condition. It is believed that the owner lives somewhere near that garden, but no one has ever seen the person. You can go check the place out. Eterna city is a very nice place. I can't imagine anyone else who isn't living inside the city except for the owner of that garden."

"Okay, thank you mister." said Ryo.

"That's a nice garchomp you have there." said the shopkeeper.

"Oh yeah, he's very strong." said Ryo. He didn't bother to mention that it was his Aunt's. The four of them headed up to the north side of town. The shops soon disappeared and they were getting close to the edge of town. The road suddenly ends and all that is left is a very light trail that leads from the city into the woods.

"I don't trust this place." said Dan. "I don't think we should go in."

"No, it's not dangerous at all." said Ryo as he closed his eyes and concentrated. "I sense nothing hostile in those woods."

"Plus, the shopkeeper told us that people would frequently visit the garden. I don't think anything dangerous would be lurking back there." said Hazel. With that, they headed into the woods. Soon, they arrived at a quaint garden. There was all kinds of flowers and plants organized in rows and columns. There was a stylish fountain at the center of the garden, which shot water out in bursts shaped like a circle.

"Wow, what a nice garden." said Ryo. As they look around, they saw all the wild pokemon running around the garden. There were starlys all along the branches of the trees. There were many bidoofs lazing around. There were even kricketots and kricketoons frollicking around. An eevee ran up to Ryo and snuggled against his feet. Ryo bent down to pick up the little furry pokemon.

"Hazel, look! Isn't she cute." said Ryo.

"Aren't we here to look for Quinn's house?" asked Dan. And plus, I know the little runt well enough. Doesn't look like the type of person to have a garden. Ryo placed the eevee back down on the ground.

"Hey, Rick. Can you feel anything?" asked Ryo. Rick shut his eyes and concentrated hard. He was very good at feeling the area for humans. He eventually gave up and shook his head. Apparently the wild pokemon interfered because they were causing too much noise. However, strangely, Ryo sensed something that Rick did not.

"There's a house close by." said Ryo. Ryo began running all of a sudden, across the garden and into the woods on the other side.

"Ryo! Wait!" yelled Hazel as they both chased after Ryo. This part of the woods, behind the garden, was winding and full of thickets and shrubbery. Ryo has spent most of his life in nature back at Twinleaf town, so it wasn't much of a problem for him.

After a few minutes of running, Ryo came upon a gate. It was a small gate that had fencing which stretched through the trees. Before long, Rick caught up to Ryo, followed by Hazel and Dan.

"What is this place?" asked Dan as he saw the rusted gate.

"There's probably a house behind there." said Hazel, pointing to the furnished path that began beyond the gate. Rick went to touch the gate, but it shocked him. Well, he was a ground type, so it didn't really affect him.

"There is electricity flowing through the bars of the gate. We can't climb over." said Ryo.

"Hey, shouldn't we be asking the question, whether this is all worth it? I mean, do we need this Quinn person?" asked Dan. Ryo ignored Dan's comment and whispered something to Rick. Rick nodded, picked Ryo up and with great leg strength, leaped over the gate and landed on the other side.

"Ryo, how do we get across?" asked Hazel.

"Don't worry. I'll be back. You can just wait out there." said Ryo as he ran up the path with Rick.

The two soon arrived at a nice looking cottage, and it was quite large for a cottage. It was two stories and was made of fine wood. Ryo knocked on the door. Almost too suddenly, a small hatch opened up at the top of the door, and a woman's face could be seen peering out.

"Who are you? How did you get past the gate?" she asked. However, after she saw Rick, she kind of knew the answer. "What do you want? Are you here to steal?"

"No! Of course not. I just want to see Quinn, that is, if I have the right place." said Ryo. The woman studied Ryo's face. She could usually tell if someone had ill intent just by looking at their face. All she saw from Ryo was innocence and curiosity. Something told her she could trust the boy.

"Alright, hold on a second." she said as she began unlocking the door. She didn't want Rick to come inside, so Ryo told him to wait at the window. Looking back, Ryo is very fortunate to have such a tolerating garchomp. Ryo entered the house and sat down in the old fashioned kitchen.

"You have a very nice garden." commented Ryo.

"Thank you. It gets lonely living out here, so I had some free time to plant a garden." she said.

"So, where is Quinn?" asked Ryo. "I'd like to see him."

"He's upstairs in his room, probably sleeping." said the woman.

"Are you his mother?" asked Ryo.

"No, I adopted him. But I'm sure Quinn has told you that." she said. Looking back, Ryo remembered that Quinn mentioned her foster mother when they were on the cruise. "Why do you even want to see him? He is very strange and isolated child, I didn't think he would make any friends." said his mother.

"Yeah, he is different." agreed Ryo. "But he seems to be a very good pokemon trainer. He has an interesting personality, and he's pretty nice. He actually helped us a lot throughout the Sinnoh Competition." said Ryo.

His mother sighed. "Quinn left the house around a year back. He just grabbed a few of his things and walked out the door without saying goodbye. I tried asking for him to stay, but he said that it was boring to live here, and that he wanted to go on a journey. He was very obsessed with training pokemon." she said. "I didn't have the influence to stop him, so he left, and I never saw him until today, when he suddenly returned. I was happy to see him, but he was so grim when he saw me. I don't know what happened to him."

"Did he tell you? He left the Sinnoh Competition during the finals, which meant that he gave up his chances to win. I was wondering if he told you why he just left." said Ryo.

"He didn't say anything to me." said Quinn's mother. "He just went right to his room."

"Can I go see him?" asked Ryo.

"Sure. His room is the second on the left." she said. As Ryo proceeded to the stairs, he was surprised to see that Quinn was running down the stairs. He was carrying a bag and he looked like he was going somewhere. When he saw Ryo, he stopped in shock.

"Ryo! What are you doing here?" Quinn asked.

Quinn's mother stood up. "Quinn, where are you going this time? You just came back."

"I'm sorry, mom. But I have to go now." he said.

"Where?!" repeated his mother louder.

"Stark Mountain." said Quinn as he looked down on the floor.

"Stark Mountain?" choked his mother as he sat back down, placing a hand on her head. "Stark Mountain is located at the other side of the region! That is a dangerous place, location of an active volcano. What business do you have there?" asked his mother.

"I can't tell you mom." said Quinn as he walked past Ryo and exited through the front door.

"Quinn, stop!" shouted Ryo as he followed him out to the front lawn.

"What do you want, Ryo?" asked Quinn.

"I just want to know why you just left us. Why did you just run away from the challenge? What did Axel say to you?" asked Ryo.

Quinn was silent for awhile. "I can't tell you that. Trust me Ryo, I will only bring harm to the people who are close to me. Just stay away. I have to go." he said.

"No, I can't do that, Quinn." said Ryo.

"Why?" asked Quinn. Now he was a little irritated.

"Because you're my friend." said Ryo. Quinn was silent again. A friend. Quinn never had a friend before, even though he told himself he didn't need one.

"What...what makes me your friend? What if I don't want to be your friend." said Quinn.

"Well, that's too bad. I know you well enough to care about you, so I'm your friend now. And you have to deal with it." Ryo's answer was a bit of a joke, but he conveyed the meaning loud and clear. He told Quinn that he cared for him. "I know you're going to do something dangerous, Quinn. I can hear it in your voice."

Quinn was surprised at how well Ryo was reading him.

"I don't care if you won't tell me, but all I ask is that you don't do it. Please. You will regret it." said Ryo. Quinn laughed, but not because of the absurd situation, but out of relief. He turned around to face Ryo.

"Tell me, Ryo. What is the real reason you came here today?" asked Quinn.

"I want you to travel with me on my pokemon journey." said Ryo plainly.

Quinn let out a loud sigh. "Okay. I will go with you on your journey." he said.

"YES!" shouted Ryo as he jumped into the air triumphantly. Quinn didn't know what he was getting himself into, but anything was better than what he was planning to do. He seemed nonchalant at the moment, but Ryo was the reason he changed his mind.

"Wait, before we go, you should talk to your mom one last time." said Ryo. Ryo waited with Rick outside as Quinn stepped back into the house. He saw his mother weeping in her hands, but she stopped when she saw Quinn come in.

"Mom, I'm sorry for leaving a whole year without your permission." he said as he sat down next to his mother. "If it makes you happy, I can spend a little more time at home, but Ryo asked if he I could travel with him, and…."

His mother cut him off. "I've been alone for all my life. I just don't want you to be like me." she said. "Go with that boy. I like him, he seems very caring. If he is truly your friend, it would be right in every way if you stick with him. You have my permission to go this time." she said.

Quinn walked up and hugged his mom tightly. "Thank you, mom. And thank you for taking care of me all these years."

"Just be careful." she said.

"Goodbye, mom!" said Quinn as he ran out the door.

Back outside the gate stood Dan and Hazel. "What's taking him so long?" asked Dan. "Why are we doing all this for Quinn?"

"Well, why are you following us in the first place? The competition is over, you can head home."

"I would love it to be that simple, but I don't have a home to go back to." said Dan.

"Huh?" Hazel asked. "What do you mean you don't have a home?"

"I'm a traveling person. Remember? I told you I've been to many different regions. That was not a lie. I use to live in Hoenn when I was young, in Sootopolis city. The city was destroyed when I was very young, around ten years old. My family died during that incident." said Dan.

Hazel's pulse began to speed up as she asked, "What destroyed your city?"

"I'm not sure. I just remember a group of people came in with pokemon I've never seen before. At first, it was a large blue creature that looked like a whale, and then came a colossal red beast. They destroyed the city using earthquake and floods. All I know is that the people were after the blue orb, which was held in that city back then. When they got what they wanted, they left the city burning to the ground and took their monsters with them" answered Dan.

Hazel was familiar with the pokemon Dan just described. "I know those people." said Hazel. Her face leaked anger as she spoke. "Those two large creatures were Kyogre and Groudon. They use to be native legendaries of Hoenn. Those people killed my family as well. Truth is, I had a family before my foster home. I lived in a small village at the coast of Sinnoh. We had possession of the ancient lustrous orb, a stone that belonged to Palkia, another legendary pokemon."

"How do you know all this?" asked Dan.

"My village was very familiar with all the legendaries and they studied them a lot. So it didn't matter that they disappeared. We knew they were real. However, five people came to raid our village. They were known as scouters, who served under a person named the dark lord. They came and butchered many people with Regigigas and the other three titans. They destroyed my village and killed many of my people just to get their hands on the Lustrous orb we had in possession. I was an infant then, so I don't know what happened exactly. I was taken away after my parents died from the incident, and was given to my current foster mother. She was the one who told me all about what happened." said Hazel.

"Was your foster mother also very familiar with the legendary pokemon?" asked Dan.

"Yes, she was. She was the one who educated me about them. They have been causing destruction recently, but it is because they have been corrupted. It's been rumored that the man known as the dark lord has control over all the legendary pokemon. That is why they have never been seen recently." said Hazel. "And by the looks of it, I say that rumor is true. I doubt most legendaries are that violent and will attack innocent humans." She looked down at her necklace and held it tight.

"What is that on your necklace?" asked Dan.

"Oh, this? This creature is known as Dialga, the master of time. This belonged to my father. He says that this legendary is not under the control of the dark lord. I don't know how, but he tells me to make sure not to lose it." said Hazel. As she talked more about herself, she began to remember the real reason she went on this journey.

At that moment, Dan and Hazel saw three figures walking back toward the gate. It was Ryo, Rick, and Quinn. "Hey, you guys! Long time no see!" he said as he pulled the gate open.

"Hey, kid. Why did you leave the competition?" asked Dan.

"I had something more important to do." said Quinn. "But that doesn't matter anymore. So let's go."

"Ryo, I can't travel with you anymore." said Hazel out of nowhere.

"What? Why?" asked Ryo.

"I have some important business to take care of. Please, I need to do this." said Hazel.

"I, also am going to leave. I need to focus solely on training for the Sinnoh League, and I train better alone." said Dan.

"Why is everyone leaving, is it something I said?" asked Ryo concerned.

"It seems that your journey isn't their priority right now. They are trainers as well, and they have their own ways of becoming stronger." said Quinn. Ryo sighed as they began walking out of the woods. The walk back was awkward, for everyone was silent. When the five of them reached Eterna City, they decided to part ways.

"Hey, wait!" shouted Ryo, before Dan and Hazel left. "Let's decide a place to meet up before the Sinnoh League. Let's at least be together before the League."

Hazel thought hard. "Okay, then. We can all meet at Hearthome City. It's in the center of Sinnoh and is the largest city." she said.

"Sure! Then, after a month, exactly, we'll all meet up at Hearthome City. Promise?" said Ryo.

Hazel sighed. "Promise."

"Promise." said Dan as all four of them linked fingers. With that, they bid farewell to each other, and Dan and Hazel left for good. Now, it was just Ryo and Quinn.

"Come one, Ryo. Enough staring, let's start our journey and train. I have to get to eight gyms in a month, so we should get a move on now." said Quinn. As Hazel walked off, she saw her necklace begin to glow. Shocked, she looked at her surroundings. Apparently, she somehow passed by Dialga.

The Adamant Orb was located in Hearthome City. It was in the hands of one wealthy man, who is planning an auction for it. People all around the region came to Hearthome for the major event. The orb weighed a hundred pounds, and was said to be made completely out of diamond. Hearthome City was not going to be a safe place, as the dark lord has his eyes set on getting that stone.


	11. Chapter 11: Hazel's True Goal

Only two days have passed since the four of them split off to train for the Sinnoh League. However, that was not what Hazel had in mind. She headed right for Hearthome City, and went to visit a mansion. The mansion belonged to a wealthy man who was in possession of the adamant orb, a priceless ancient artifact. His name was William Peterson, and he was quite well-known for his wealth around the region. Hazel came here today because she saw the many flyers around town that revealed William needed security guards for the auction happening in the future, at the central hearthome theatre. The adamant orb is of high value, and William has no doubt that some people will attempt to steal it, especially when it will be in a public place.

Hazel walked into the mansion and saw a lady writing something behind a counter. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. "Hello, my name is Hazel. I'm here to apply to be a security guard for Mr. Peterson." said Hazel.

The woman continued writing for another few seconds before she looked up at Hazel. "Aren't you a little young to be applying for this job. We don't just hire anyone who walks through that door. Mr. Peterson made it clear, that we can only hire skilled trainers. If anyone were to try and steal that orb, there will be no doubt that they would be skilled trainers who will use their pokemon in the process. Are you willing to prove to us that you have enough battling experience?" she asked.

"Sure." said Hazel. "What must I do?" The lady got up and beckoned for Hazel to follow. The two of them entered a side door that led to a battle hall. A large room with a battlefield located at the center. The mansion was quite large, so it wasn't surprising that it could fit a battlefield. The lady walked into a trainer's box.

"By the way, my name is Mary. I'll be battling you, to see if you have what it takes to serve under Mr. Peterson. I am also one of his security guards." she said.

"Okay, then. Let's battle." said Hazel as she walked to her trainer's box. "Vaporeon, I choose you!" Hazel's vaporeon landed on the battlefield.

"Sylveon, show her what you've got." Mary said. Sylveon jumped onto the battlefield. It was the fight between two eeveelutions.

"Vaporeon, use Hydropump!" shouted Hazel. Vaporeon leaped into the air and spat a strong blast of water toward Sylveon. Sylveon easily dodged.

"Sylveon, use calm mind." said Mary. The Sylveon closed its eyes and began powering up.

"Quick, go in for a quick attack!" said Hazel. Vaporeon was able to dash up to the Sylveon who was busy using calm mind, and struck her back. The quick attack was not enough to do significant damage.

"Now, Sylveon! Use Moonblast!" Sylveon opened her eyes and shot out a sparkling ball that headed straight for Vaporeon. Vaporeon was too close then, so she didn't have time to dodge. The attack hit Vaporeon square on, and it was extra powerful from calm mind, sending her flying in the air and crashing into the ground.

"Vaporeon!" yelled Hazel. Vaporeon was unable to battle.

"I'm sorry to say this, Hazel, but I don't think you have what it takes for this job. Mr. Peterson will not be hiring you." said Mary. Hazel walked out of that mansion, feeling completely defeated. She had to find a way to get that job.

It was getting dark. And there weren't many people outside. As she was walking down the empty street, she heard someone following her. She spun around, but there was no one in sight behind her.

"You know, if you want to get that job, you should have a better sense than that." said a man's voice. Hazel looked up to see two figures standing on top of a roof of a building. It was a man and a blaziken. The man climbed on to the blaziken and the two of them leaped off the building and back onto the ground.

"Stay back! What do you want?!" said Hazel defensively.

"Woah, woah, calm down! I'm just here to help." said the man. As Hazel got a closer look, she saw that the man was quite old, maybe in his sixties. Even though the man claimed he didn't have ill intent, Hazel didn't trust him as she went to grab for one of her pokeballs.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." he said. "I'll spare you the trouble and tell you that you will lose if you fight me in a pokemon battle."

"Well, then who are you?" asked Hazel.

"I'm just an old veteran trainer who is looking out to help rookie trainers. You can call me Brandon. I heard you weren't skilled enough to be a security guard for William." said Brandon.

"How did you know that? Were you spying on me?" she asked.

"Yes, I was." said Brandon bluntly. "I followed you for a few days now. I did it because you seem like an interesting trainer. Tell me, why do you want to apply for that job?"

Hazel looked down at the ground. "I can't tell you." she said. Brandon caught a glance of the necklace and saw the creature engraved at the center.

"That's the legendary pokemon, Dialga. Who gave that to you?" asked Brandon.

Hazel looked up, surprised that this man knew the pokemon on her necklace. "My father gave this to me. Do you know about the legendary pokemon?" asked Hazel.

"Of course I do. I lived for a long time and I have seen quite a few of them before they all disappeared." said Brandon. "Now let me ask you again. Why are you applying?"

This time, Hazel didn't feel the need to keep it a secret. "Do you know about the dark lord?" asked Hazel.

Brandon sighed. "Yes, I do. He has been rumored to have control over all the legendaries. I'm aware of that person." he said.

"Well, Mr. Peterson is having an auction for the adamant orb in a few weeks, and I'm certain that the dark lord will come to hearthome to steal the orb. If I am there as a security guard, I think I can help stop him and get revenge for my parents." she said.

"You won't help in anyway, not the way you are now. You won't stand a chance. You still haven't told me your name." said Brandon.

"It's Hazel." she said.

"Well, Hazel. I can see you are determined to confront the dark lord. But if he comes, he would have many powerful pokemon on his side. What will you do then? Do you really think you can defeat him, by yourself?" asked Brandon.

Hazel looked down at the ground again. Now that she thought about it, she was being very reckless. How could she possibly have the power to stop the dark lord.

"I can help you train." said Brandon. Hazel looked up at him, confused. "I know a lot about the art of pokemon battling. Trust me. I can help you get stronger." Hazel had every reason to believe that this man was a phony, but she couldn't help but have the urge to trust him.

"Okay, then, when are we starting?" asked Hazel.

"Tonight." said Brandon. Hazel followed him out of Hearthome City and into a nearby woods. "Show me your pokemon." he said.

Hazel summoned a Torterra, Vaporeon, and a Rhyhorn. She caught the Rhyhorn recently after she left her friends at Eterna City.

"Only three pokemon? I guess we can make do with that." said Brandon. He motioned for Blaziken to step up. "Because you are willing to let me train you, you have to follow every single one of my rules, and no slacking." he said.

"Of course." replied Hazel.

* * *

A few weeks went by. Hazel would meet Brandon in the morning to train with him and she would only go back to an inn at midnight. He had powerful pokemon, and fighting with him really helped Hazel's battling strategy and the power/speed of her pokemon. Everyday, Brandon taught her something new that she didn't know before. Soon, her Rhyhorn evolved into a Rhydon, which then evolved into a Rhyperior, through the span of the month. She was also able to catch a Rapidash and get a Scyther, which evolved in Scizor. It was reaching the end of the month, and it was the last day of Hazel's training with brandon, before she must go back to Mr. Peterson's mansion.

"I'm very impressed, Hazel. You have improved a lot." said Brandon. "Not to mention, your pokemon have also gotten a lot stronger."

"Thank you." replied Hazel. After training for a whole month, she was like a completely different person. "Will this be the end of my training?" asked Hazel.

"No, I need to tell you one more thing, and this is very important." said Brandon. "Pokemon and humans are very similar. We are all animals and the aura that flows through them is similar to the aura that flows through us." he said.

Hazel listened intently as Brandon continued. "This might sound impossible, but it has happened before. Humans can transform into Pokemon." Hazel's eyes widened from shock as she heard him say this. Humans becoming pokemon? She couldn't believe it.

"There haven't been many cases of it, but if you believe in legendaries, then this shouldn't be much of a surprise. However, most people turn into pokemon accidentally, not with the idea in mind. And when I say transform into pokemon, I'm not saying completely. For example, have you heard of a man named Elias Maine? He had magically grown wings of an aerodactyl while fighting kidnappers who had took his daughter. They took of in an aircraft, and he needed to chase after them. There was no way Elias could catch up to them without a way to fly. That was when large aerodactyl wings sprouted from his back. He was able to do this because he had a strong resolve to save his daughter no matter what. And with those wings came a toll. Once he was able to chase after those kidnappers with his wings, those wings disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and his back was suddenly broken. That was his sacrifice for the wings. Now, he lives the life of a cripple, sitting in a chair, not being able to move at all from his broken back."

"Brandon, why are you telling me this?" asked Hazel.

"You seem like a very strong individual. What I mentioned before only happens to people with a strong will. You have great determination, and especially with your hatred for the dark lord destroying your village, I'm afraid you might use that power unwillingly when you are pushed up against a corner when he comes. It is very rare for something that happened to Elias to happen again, but it is quite possible. Be careful, Hazel. You have to value yourself more than your vengeance." said the man.

Hazel understood why Brandon would say this to her. "I'm doing this to save the legendaries. That is my cause. And I will stop at nothing to make that happen." said Hazel. She stood up. "I thank you for all the time you spent on training me. And I will always keep that in mind." With that, Hazel bid farewell to Brandon, and headed for Mr. Peterson's mansion.

Brandon sighed and headed out of town. He knew his job was done. All that matters is what Hazel was going to do when the time comes. Hazel didn't know, but Brandon was a survivor of the incident that happened at Hazel's village a few years ago. Hazel didn't know him, but Brandon knew Hazel quite well. He was her grandfather.

When Hazel returned, she found Mary still behind the counter, scribbling something on paper as usual. She looked up and saw that Hazel has returned. "Oh, you're back." she said.

"I'd like to apply for the security position again." said Hazel.

Mary let out a sigh. "Okay, follow me." she said as they returned to the battle hall. They both stepped into the trainer's boxes and released their pokemon. They both decided to go with the same match up. Vaporeon vs Sylveon again.

"Let's see if you have improved, Hazel." said Mary.

"Vaporeon, use scald." said Hazel Vaporeon shot out a stream of steaming hot water towards Sylveon.

"Sylveon, use protect!" said Mary. Sylveon created an energy field that blocked the steaming water, but it created mist around Sylveon, making the pokemon unable to see where Vaporeon is.

"Now, use Hydro Pump!" shouted Hazel. Vaporeon jumped into the air and shot a strong blast of water toward Sylveon. Sylveon wasn't able to see the attack coming, and the hydro pump hit Sylveon square in the chest, sending her flying out of the field and crashing into the wall. Sylveon was unable to battle.

Mary couldn't help but stare in shock as her Sylveon was taken out in one hit. "Wow! Hazel, your Vaporeon has gotten much stronger. I'm very impressed." she said as she returned Sylveon to her pokeball. "Well, welcome to the security team. It seems you are qualified for the job."

She brought Hazel into a hallway and she told her to enter the fourth door on her left. Hazel walked in to see four other people waiting in the room. The room seemed like a lounge area, with sofas, a tv, and a nice glass table. There was a man who had blond hair and was wearing a suit. Another man who had darker skin and had sunglasses on. There was a lady with purple hair that looked to be in her late teens, and there was another man with long grey hair and he wore a fedora. They all looked at her when she entered.

"Who are you?" asked the man with the sunglasses.

"Um, I'm Hazel. I applied for the security team that would watch the adamant orb during Mr. Peterson's auction."

"You?" asked the man wearing the fedora. "Why would the boss need you. You're too young for this job, missy, go find another job to do." he said.

The man with blond hair stood up and walked over to Hazel. "Sorry, about these guys. Don't listen to him. He's like that to everyone."

"So, is everyone here on Mr. Peterson's security team?" asked Hazel.

"Yes, we are." he said. "Welcome. My name is Kevin. The guy over there with the fedora is Tyron. The man over here with the dark glasses is Sam. This young lady behind me is Jessica. We might look ordinary, but we are all very experienced trainers. I'm assuming you are too, if Mary thought you qualified for this job." he said.

At that moment, Mary entered the room as well. "Have you all met the new member?" she asked. Everyone nodded. "Well, good. We just got a transmission from Mr. Peterson about our plans." Mary set a computer on the table. A video started with a man who began speaking at the center of the screen.

"Hello, everyone. I'm William Peterson. My auction will be starting tomorrow in the evening. There will be lots of visitors coming to the Hearthome theatre for the auction of the adamant orb. Your jobs are to eliminate any suspicious figures and only allow guests to come in from the front door. Anyone else who enters the building a different way will be stopped immediately and taken to the police. Understand?" he said.

Everyone nodded. "Okay, I will see you all there tomorrow. Show up extra early. Three of you will be stationed inside the theatre, and three of you will be stationed outside around the building. Don't fail your task. If you are successful at the end, all of you will be payed with a large sum of money. Oh, and by the way, regarding the people who will be stationed inside the theatre, make sure you dress up. You want to blend in with all the wealthy looking people. " with that, Mr. Peterson disconnected.

"Excuse me, but isn't six security guards a little low for an event this important?" asked Hazel. Shouldn't we hire more people.

"Don't worry." said Jessica. "It's just like Kevin says. We are skilled trainers and can easily stop an intruder. Don't worry about it, Hazel." she said. Hazel only wished that that was the case.

The six of them planned out the most efficient system for the auction the next day. Before long, the night was over, and the morning of the auction has arrived. At the edge of the city, came Axel. He looked up at the skyscrapers of Hearthome City. It was truly a beautiful place. He saw all the busy people rushing up and down the street. He knew that today was a big day, the auction of the adamant orb was going to happen in the evening. The city were extra busy.

He began walking down the streets, searching around for the other scouters of the dark lord. The dark lord had sent the other four earlier, and they were already at the location of the auction. Axel couldn't help but smirk as he made his way to Hearthome City's center. He knew that something big was going to happen at the theatre. At the main theatre stage, stood William peterson, staring in awe at the adamant orb that he was going to auction away, oblivious to what was going to happen that evening.

Meanwhile, Ryo and Quinn had made there way to hearthome City to reunite with Dan and Hazel. They have been training non stop throughout the month, and there pokemon teams have improved quite a bit.


	12. Chapter 12: Danger Lurking in Hearthome

When Hazel and Dan left, Quinn and Ryo traveled around the Sinnoh region again to train their pokemon. While on their journey, Quinn was able to make a trip to all of the gyms and obtain his eight badges. He didn't lose a single gym battle. While on their journey, the boys went back to Twinleaf town so Ryo could get Rick's pokeball from Aunt Melissa, and it also counted as a visit, like Ryo had promised her. So, now Rick doesn't have to be outside the whole time, for many people have mistaken him as a wild garchomp. They arrived at Hearthome City at the promised time, exactly a month after the group split up.

"Hey, Quinn. Where did I say we would meet up, exactly?" asked Ryo.

"You didn't. We just said we'd meet up here in this city." said Quinn. "So, we kind of have to look for them."

"Oops. I guess I should've been more specific." said Ryo as they began walking down the streets of Hearthome. The city was radiant and full of tall skyscrapers. There were many people on the streets and many open stores that sold all kinds of merchandise.

"Oh! Look at that!" said Ryo as he ran up to a large poster. "There's a mini pokemon tournament today at the Hearthome battle Stadium. We should go attend it!"

"Wait, we have to first find Hazel and Dan." said Quinn.

"Well, that can wait. Maybe we are the first to arrive. Don't worry, Quinn. We'll find them later." said Ryo as he headed down the street toward the battle stadium. Quinn didn't have a choice but to follow.

When they arrived at the stadium, they were greeted by a crowd of pokemon trainers waiting in front of the building. Quinn and Ryo squeezed their way to the front for registration. It was a simple tournament. There were thirty two open positions, and each battle was one on one. Unlike the Sinnoh Competition, the trainer can choose a different pokemon for each battle.

Over at Hearthome's Center Plaza stood the large theatre, where the auction of the adamant orb was being held. It was such a large event, that the mini tournament at the Hearthome battle Stadium was completely overshadowed. Thousands upon thousands of people can be seen waiting outside the building, urging to get in as fast as possible. Hazel and the other security guards were already inside the building and they met up with William Peterson at the stage.

"Jessica, Hazel, and Tyron, you three will be stationed outside the building on the second floor deck. You can easily spot suspicious figures on the outside, as well as quick access to the theatre room itself. Sam, Mary, and Kevin, you three will be stationed right here in this auditorium. The three of you, get your outfits and dress up now." said Mr. Peterson.

Hazel wanted to be as close to the orb as possible, which meant she preferred to be stationed inside, but she knew that Mr. Peterson's decisions were final. She followed Jessica and Tyron outside, and awaited further instructions. The current time was eleven o'clock am.

Back at the battle stadium, the mini tournament was getting underway. The match ups were all created, and the first round was about to begin. All the competitors stepped onto the side lines as the announcer walked onto the center of the battlefield.

"Welcome, all, to Hearthome City's Pokemon Tournament. Each of you will battle each other in a series of one on ones. If you lose a battle, you will be eliminated from the race to be winner. Our first match up is, Ryo vs Dan!"

Surprised, Ryo looked to his left to see that Dan was also at the stadium, participating in the tournament. "Ryo! Long time no see! How've you've been?" asked Dan as he walked up to Ryo.

"It's been great. I didn't know you were participating at this tournament." said Ryo.

"Well, I was actually trying to look for you guys and Hazel, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try out a little tournament like this. You know, practice for the league." said Dan.

"Um, excuse me, but this is a tournament. Please step into the trainer's boxes." said the announcer. Ryo and Dan both walked into their respective trainer's box.

"This will be a one on one battle. If one pokemon is unable to battle, the victory will go to the other trainer. Now, let the battle commence!" shouted the ref.

"Ace, I choose you!" shouted Quinn as he released a staraptor. During his training, Ace had evolved from Staravia to Staraptor.

"A flying type, huh? I will go with you, Gigalith!" shouted Dan as the large rock pokemon appeared on the battlefield. Ryo was at a type disadvantage, but that didn't phase him.

"Use aerial ace!" shouted Ryo. Ace flew with great speed, many times faster than he was as a staravia. Ace dove down towards Gigalith and struck him head on. Gigalith was barely hurt by the attack.

"You gotta try better than that, Ryo. Gigalith, use stone edge!" shouted Dan. Gigalith sent sharp jagged rocks up in the air toward Ace. Ace dodged all the incoming rocks swiftly and flew down back towards Gigalith.

"Ryo, your attacks won't do anything to Gigalith. He's a rock type." said Dan.

Ryo smiled mischievously. "Oh yeah? Ace, use close combat!"

"What?!" cried out Dan. Ace began pummeling Gigalith with his talons and wings, as if they were fists. Ace was quite strong, and with the last strike, sent Gigalith up into the air and crashing back onto the ground. Gigalith was unable to battle. Dan just stood there gaping at what happened.

"Gigalith is unable to battle! Therefore, the victory goes to Ryo!" yelled the ref. The crowd cheered Ryo on. "Wow, you really are something, Ryo. You must of trained hard this past month." said Dan as he walked up to him. The two of them walked off the stage as the next match was starting.

Back at the Hearthome Theatre, Hazel walked onto the outside back balcony of the building on the second floor. The fresh air was really nice, but she knew she had to pay extra attention on the ground outside as the evening approached. Jessica was stationed at the same balcony as Hazel's, and Tyron was placed at the front balcony, watching any intruders that decided to sneak in from the front of the building.

"So, Hazel. Where are you from?" asked Jessica.

"Oh, I'm from Sandgem Town." said Hazel.

"Oh, that's a nice little town. Perfect place to live, as that is where the professor's lab is located." she said. "Why did you decide to take this job?"

"I value the adamant orb, and want to make sure it doesn't get stolen." said Hazel. Of course, that was a lie.

"Really? I just took this job because I could use the extra money." said Jessica. The doors leading back to the building opened up as Mary, Kevin, and Sam walked out onto the back balcony.

"Hey, what are you guys doing up here? Shouldn't you be staying inside, where you were assigned?" asked Jessica.

"Calm down. We're just here to take a breezer. Plus, the auction is starting much later. We still have time to relax before we are on duty." said Sam.

Hazel saw that the three of them were dressed up real nicely. Mary was in a stylish white dress that had a skirt that went down to her heels. Sam was wearing a nice blue tuxedo, and his hair was combed back. Kevin, was wearing his usual suit, the one that Hazel saw when she first met him.

"Wow, you guys look really nice." commented Hazel.

"Hazel, are you going to be fine up here?" asked Mary.

"Yeah, don't worry about me. And Jessica is also up here helping me out. I'm going to be fine watching this sector of the building." said Hazel.

"Okay, but make sure you don't get distracted. A few second is all it takes for an intruder to come into the building." warned Mary.

"We'll be fine. Thank you for your concern." said Jessica.

"If anything, we are just back ups." said Kevin. "You two have the important job of making sure the intruder does not get in in the first place. Only if you fail, do we have to act inside the auditorium."

"Okay, we'll pay extra attention" said Hazel. She looked out at the grass and trees that stretched behind the building. She realized that it was going to be really easy for an intruder to hide within the shrubbery, especially at night.

Mary walked up beside Hazel, gazing out at the view. "I can't stop wondering. You're only fourteen. Why do you want to be a security guard for Mr. Peterson?" she asked.

Hazel didn't feel like lying to her. "I have reason to believe that a very powerful man will come and steal the orb. I want to make sure that doesn't happen." said Hazel.

Mary sighed. "It's good that you're concerned. But, we have everything under control. We have pokemon ourselves. We might not look like pros, but we have lots of experience with robbers. You know Kevin over there? He was able to stop a whole gang of robbers all by himself with one of his pokemon. Hazel, you have nothing to worry about." said Mary.

"I hope so." said Hazel as she looked up at the horizon.

"You know, when I was your age, I had a dream to be the champion of this region. Even though that didn't happen, I'm still happy where I am now. If you have a different dream to pursue, you don't have to hide it. Go for it, Hazel. Very few young individuals, like you with this much potential, wastes it on being some security guard." said Mary.

"Thank you, Mary. But I'm well aware of what my dream, my goal is." said Hazel.

Tyron was standing by on the front balcony, alone. He pulled out his cellphone and began calling someone. "Axel, are the other three on their way?" he asked.

"Yes, and they will bring a nice surprise to the stage." said the voice from the phone. The time was two o'clock pm.

Back at Hearthome's battle stadium, the mini tournament was rolling by very fast. It was now at the final match up, the battle for the winning spot. "For the final match up, we have Ryo vs Quinn!" shouted the announcer. All the spectators clapped as Ryo and Quinn both stepped up onto the battlefield.

"Hey, Ryo, I guess this is where we decide which one of us is the better trainer." said Quinn.

"Yeah!" said Ryo. "And I'm going to go at you with all I've got!"

"Let the battle commence!" shouted the ref.

"Metagross, come on out!" shouted Quinn. The four legged steal creature stomped onto the battlefield.

"Infernape, I choose you!" shouted Ryo. Infernape hopped onto the stage, and he was hyped. It was a pretty even battle. Infernape can hurt Metagross with his fire moves, but Metagross can hurt Infernape with his Psychic moves.

"Infernape, use flamethrower!" shouted Ryo. Infernape leaped up into the air and shot a stream of fire toward Metagross.

"Metagross, use light screen!" shouted Quinn. As the flamethrower struck metagross, the light screen weakened the move by a lot, allowing Metagross to receive less damage. "Now, metagross, use Psychic!" The property of Psychic moves are that they could hit no matter where the opponent was. Infernape took the heavy attack and yelled in pain from the damage, even though he was across the battlefield.

"Infernape, hang on!" shouted Ryo. "Use fire spin!" Infernape trapped Metagross in a vortex of fire. It wasn't a strong attack, but it kept damaging Metagross every few seconds.

Quinn knew that he had to finish the battle fast, or else his Metagross will faint soon. "Metagross, use Scary Face!" Infernape's movement slowed down by a lot. He knew the main advantage Ryo had against him was speed. Now that was eliminated, the battle was going to favor him.

Ryo realized the dire situation Infernape was in. "Infernape, use flare blitz to finish it off!" Infernape was slow, so Metagross saw him coming. However, he was still too fast for Metagross to attack him with another move.

"Metagross, use reflect!" said Quinn. Infernape charged in and the two pokemon collided with each other. The impact caused an explosion, which fogged up the battlefield. As the smoke dissipated, Infernape was found unconscious on the ground.

"Infernape is unable to battle, therefore, Quinn is the winner of the hearthome mini tournament!" shouted the announcer as the spectators stood up and clapped for him.

"You did great, Infernape." said Ryo as he returned him to his pokeball.

"Ryo, that was a very exciting battle. I know it didn't seem like it, but it was a very close match. Metagross was about to faint if he had to fight any longer because of the fire vortex."

"I don't get it, Quinn. Why didn't Infernape's flare blitz take Metagross out? It's a very strong fire type move." said Ryo.

"If you payed attention, I used reflect just before Infernape came in, and that lowered the attack's damage, which is why metagross was still able to battle after the impact. Your infernape fainted because flare blitz does a lot of recoil damage on the pokemon using it. Because I already used a strong psychic move on you, your infernape did not have too much health left. Ryo, it's important that you focus on your defensive game. You were too focused on the offense." said Quinn.

"True, thank you for telling me that. I still have lots to learn." said Ryo. Quinn disagreed. Ryo was a very talented trainer for his age, and he knew quite a lot about battling. Quinn walked back to center stage and received his gold medal.

"Don't forget to give a round of applause for our runner up, Ryo!" shouted the announcer. All the spectators showered Ryo with applauses. Ryo knew what his next goal was. He had to improve enough to be able to beat Quinn in a pokemon battle.

After the celebration was over, the two boys left the stadium with Dan and began heading towards the city's center plaza.

"Hey Dan, are you sure Hazel is there?" asked Quinn.

"I'm not certain, but today is a big day. There is an auction being held at Hearthome's city theatre, and that is why there are so many people in this city today. A man named William Peterson will be auctioning off the adamant orb.

"The adamant orb? What's that?" asked Ryo.

"It's a stone that belongs to the mythical legendary, Dialga. With the adamant orb, Dialga's powers increase ten fold." said Quinn.

"How do you know that?" asked Dan.

"Read it in a book" said Quinn plainly.

Tyron stood by as he watch the sun moving across the western sky. It was three o'clock and evening was coming soon. He left his stationed and went down to the front of the building, destroying the security cameras in the front. He returned to his position and gave another call on his cell. "It has been done. Time to get the ball rolling." he said.

The receiver was in a cafe next to Hearthome's Theatre. "Got it." said the woman as she flipped the cell phone off. She was sitting with two other men. The woman was dressed in black. She wore a short skirt and a silk blouse. The man to her left had rough brown hair. He was large and had lots of muscle. He was wearing a leather jacket. The other one was black of hair. He was wearing a black tuxedo.

"Shelly, was that Tyron?" asked the buffer man.

"Yes, it's time for us to go in." said Shelly. "Frederick, could you check the front of the building. Make sure people are being let in." The man in the tuxedo was Frederick. He walked to the front of the cafe and looked out the window towards the large theatre building.

"Shelly, it's starting. We must take leave now." said Frederick. The three of them left the cafe and approached the building. It was now four o'clock pm. The main entrances were now open and allowing people in. Of course, only people who were wealthy and had a ticket could attend the auction. The large crowd of people gathered at the front of the building created a perfect camouflage for the three scouters who were intruding. Tyron clearly saw them, and smiled as everything was going as planned.

Ryo, Quinn, and Dan arrived at the city plaza, in front of the large Hearthome theatre. "There's a lot of people here, and they all look rich." said Quinn. "Are you sure Hazel will be here?"

"Hazel is here. I just know it." said Ryo as he concentrated hard, sensing something that the other two didn't.

"Well, let's go in then." said Dan. As they waited in line, it was now their turn to enter the building. The man at the front door looked down at the three of them, then up, as if scanning their body and judging them.

"I'm sorry, but this event is for the high class only. You may not enter without a ticket." he said.

"What?! We waited such a long time in this line! How can you just kick us out like that!" shouted Dan.

"Security!" yelled the man.

"Okay, we'll leave!" said Quinn dragging Dan away, as to not cause too much trouble.

As more people entered the building, the auditorium became filled. It was quite a large theatre. It seated roughly about ten thousand people. If not, more. They were all wealthy men or business tycoons, aiming to get a good price on the relic known as the adamant orb. Cynthia was in hearthome city at the time, as well as Lance and Steven. Steven and Lance both stayed in Sinnoh from the Sinnoh Competition a month prior and had decided to come to Hearthome for the commotion at the city plaza.

Back at the auditorium, Kevin, Mary, and Sam were sitting together at the edge of the auditorium, watching for any suspicious figures. William stood on stage is he watched all the people showing up for the event. He was very pleased with himself. He looked back at the adamant orb that was placed in a nice large glass case. But something strange was happening. The orb was glowing. He shrugged it off, believing it was from the reflection of the light, but what it really meant was that Dialga was close by.

The time was now six o'clock. The auction was about to begin.


	13. Chapter 13: A Night of Chaos

Author's Note: Thank you for all the readers who are still following my story. This is warning that this chapter will contain some graphic content and will be more violent than the previous chapters. Enjoy!

* * *

The sun has set and night has fallen upon Hearthome City. Even though it was dark everywhere else in Sinnoh, Hearthome City glowed from the lights of all the buildings and skyscrapers. The city was alive on this particular night. The night of the auctioning of the adamant orb. Most commoners weren't allowed inside the theatre, so many people were hanging out in the city plaza, where there were many restaurants and shops.

Ryo, Quinn, and Dan were standing in front of the Hearthome Theatre, wondering for a way to get in.

"You really think Hazel is in there?" asked Quinn.

"Yes, I can tell." said Ryo.

"Are you sure she isn't outside in a ship or a restaurant waiting for us in the city plaza?" asked Dan.

"No, she's definitely in that building somewhere." said Ryo.

"Well, you heard the guy, we can't enter." said Dan. "How do you suppose we find her."

"We can sneak around back." said Quinn.

"Wait, what if they have security guards watching out back?" asked Dan.

"We can take that gamble." said Ryo. "Let's go."

"You two can go. I'll wait here and see if she ever comes out from the front." said Dan.

With that, Ryo and Quinn circled around the side of the building using a corner street. Then, the two of them climbed a fence and crossed through the woods. They were going to see if they could make it into the back courtyard of the Hearthome Theatre.

Hazel was waiting patiently on the back deck of the building. The night breeze was very relaxing. There was still no sign of an intruders. _Thwack!_ Went the sound of a branch.

"Who's there!" shouted Hazel. There was no response. It was just the wind. As you can see, Hazel was very tense.

The time was now seven o'clock. The auction has begun. William Peterson walked onto the stage, staring at the thousands of people watching him in the audience. They were all very well dressed and had an eye for the orb.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen." said William. "As you all know, today we are here for a great relic that I own, the adamant orb. This diamond jewel weighs a hundred pounds, and is quite invaluable, being made completely out of a special diamond that can't be found anywhere else. Our goal tonight, is to give a price for this ancient piece of history."

The crowd applauded at William's introduction. His assistant strolled the cart into the room. The cart was covered with a sheet of fabric. As the assistant pushed it toward the center of the stage, William removed the cover, to reveal a dazzling diamond orb. The audience were mesmerized by the beauty of the stone. To add to the wow factor, the orb began to glow again, quite violently. William was quite surprised to see this happen, but the audience just applauded, thinking it was some sort of trick. William just went along with it.

"So, starting bid will be a thousand dollars!" said William.

"Two thousand!" "Five thousand!" "Ten thousand" screamed random people from the audience.

"Alright! We have a ten thousand! Anyone higher?" asked William.

"Twenty Thousand! A hundred thousand! Two hundred thousand!" yelled more people. The voices were decreasing in frequency as the price rose.

"We have two hundred thousand! Going once, going…." William began.

"Four hundred thousand!" "1 million dollars!" shouted a couple of people.

"One million dollars? Anyone here to challenge that?" asked William. Many people were silent at this point.

"Two million dollars." said a man all the way in the back. He looked very wealthy.

"Two million. That's very…" he was cut off by another shout.

"Five million dollars!" hollered another man. The crowd was now dead silent. Who was going to have the money?

"Five million dollars! What a sum! Going once, going twice." began William.

"Ten million dollars!" yelled the man in the back again.

"Ten...ten million dollars?!" stuttered William. "Anyone else to top that price?" he asked. The other man has given up. No one could top that price. "Alright! Sold to the man in the back! Come on up and receive your prize!"

The man who had won began walking up to the stage. He had black hair and wore a tuxedo. He was none other than the very person who was just at the cafe. He was Frederick, but no one in the audience knew who he was. He walked up the steps and was now on the stage. William stepped to the side to present the adamant orb to him. In truth, the man did not have the money to pay for the diamond. He walked up to William and pulled out a knife. William was too slow to react. Frederick dashed forward and slit his throat!

"Aach! What…" cried William out of shock as he fell to the floor, blood spurting from his neck. The man known as William peterson, was dead at Frederick's feet. The crowd stared in horror and frozen in their seats as they began interpreting what just happened in front of them. Kevin got up from his seat. There was trouble, and he had to stop it.

"Suicune, come on out!" shouted Frederick. He released a pokeball and a pokemon with a slim, quadruped, body with white, diamond-shaped markings appeared on the stage. Except it was different than the suicune you know. It was shrouded in darkness and surrounded by evil aura.

"Exterminate." commanded Frederick. Suicune let out a ferocious howl as he began storing up energy. Then, Suicune exploded with a wave of attacks. Icicles appeared from his body and began shooting out in all directions toward the audience. The icicles were sharp and deadly. The audience had began panicking, but it was too late. The first wave hit the audience towards the stage, killing almost all of them immediately. As they saw the danger, they all began running for their lives, for the exit. People fell to the ground from being decapitated or bleeding to death. The icicles were completely random and struck many people every second.

"Aah!" went the cry of young woman and her child as they fell to the ground from being struck in the back by one of the icicles. Another flew by the side of a young man, taking off his arm.

"Everyone get down!" yelled Kevin towards Mary and Sam, who were both behind him. "Aegislash, get out now!" Kevin shouted. The ghost sword pokemon appeared before them. "Use King Shield! Quick!" Aegislash formed an energy barrier in front of Kevin, Sam, and Mary. But, to his surprise, the barrier did not stop the icicles. It all went right through the energy field.

Kevin stared in shock as Aegislash was pummeled with all the icicles. Eventually, he fainted and fell to the ground.

"Aegislash!" cried out Kevin as he realized his plan wasn't working. "Sam, Mary, get to the back door and escape, hurry…." he didn't finish his sentence as an ice crystal shaped like a dagger struck him right in the temple. He was dead before his body collapsed to the ground.

"Kevin! NO!" cried out Mary in terror.

"We have to get out now!" cried Sam as he pulled Mary to the back door. The two of them hopped over the dead bodies and escaped just in time through the door before any icicles managed to hit them.

Sam quickly shut the door to the auditorium. Thinking they were safe in the lobby, he pulled out his phone to call 911.

"Yes, we need assitance at the Heart Home theatre. There has been a ….Aaaah!" cried out Sam as he fell to the ground his phone flying out of his hand. A bisharp had appeared behind him and used iron head on his back, breaking every bone in his torso. He then proceeded to decapitate his head as he was unable to move on the ground.

Mary stared in horror at what happened to Sam. The blood was oozing rapidly from the stump between his shoulders. She looked up to see a woman in black commanding the bisharp. She was Shelly, but Mary didn't know who she was. Screaming for her life, Mary ran for the door. Shelly had no sense of mercy in mind.

"Use Guillotine." she said to Bisharp. Mary was about to reach the front door, yelling desperately for help, but no one heard her. The Bisharp lunged forward at her, slicing through her body. She fell to the floor in her own pool of blood. Shelly then proceeded to walk into the auditorium, to see if Frederick had finished the job.

Meanwhile, Hazel was beginning to hear the frantic yelling and screaming from the front of the building. What the hell was going on? She thought to herself. She quickly left her station, and Jessica followed close behind.

"Hazel, what's happening?" asked Jessica.

"Somethings going down at the auditorium. We might be too late!" yelled Hazel.

Frederick saw Shelly enter the theatre. "Oh, nice of you to finally show up." he said. "Don't you just love the smell of fear and death." he said as he gave a whiff of the room. The buff man also came in behind Shelly.

"I didn't get any action yet." complained the big guy.

"Hey, Darius. Don't worry. Your time to shine will come soon." said Frederick. At that moment, Tryon also walked into the room. Smiling at the sight of the thousands of dead bodies littered across the auditorium.

"Well, done. You three. But no time to waste. The dark lord wants us back as soon as possible, and the police are coming any second. Grab the orb and run out back." commanded Tyron. The two followed his orders. Darius walked over to the cart and was able to carry the 100 pound stone out. The four scouters escaped through the backdoor unseen, for Hazel and Jessica had left their position at the back deck.

Hazel and Jessica made it to the lobby, but they were too late. Dozens of police cars pulled up to the building. They burst through the double doors to the auditorium to find the thousands of dead bodies on the floor.

"The adamant orb has been stolen!" reported one of the officers. Police cars began speeding off, looking for the perpetrators. Hazel got a glance of the massacre inside the theatre. She felt her heart drop as she saw all the blood and dead bodies. Right at her feet, she saw the sliced body of Mary, her face full of fear. Hazel held onto her necklace, and ran out of the building.

As she ran outside into the city streets, everyone stared at her. An officer walked up and said, "Excuse me, mam. You have to evacuate this area, now."

"Sorry." she said as she ran past the crowd of people curious about what was going on.

"Hazel!" shouted a familiar voice.

"Dan?" yelled Hazel as she saw him. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, of course. Wow, you look different." Dan said. Hazel's hair had grown a lot longer from the last time they saw her. It has grown past her face and was now down to her shoulders. "What happened?" asked Dan.

"There was a massacre! Where's Ryo and Quinn? Were they with you?" asked Hazel.

"Um, no, they were heading around to find a way into that building." said Dan.

"Shit! We have to find them!" yelled Hazel.

Meanwhile, the four scouters were heading through the woods to escape from the vicinity of the building. Darius looked down at the adamant orb and noticed that it was glowing very oddly and very violently.

"Hey, Tyron! What's happening with the stone?" he asked.

Tyron looked back and saw the flashing orb. "That can't be right? Can it?" he said to himself. "If I'm not mistaken, the way that stone is flashing means that Dialga is very close by, and we are approaching him."

"How is that possible?" asked Shelly. "Wouldn't we have seen that massive pokemon by now?" she asked. As the four of them ran along, they bumped into two boys that were running in the opposite direction. It was Ryo and Quinn.

Both parties stopped. Ryo wasn't sure what to make of the four people that stood in front of them, but Quinn realized immediately what was happening. "You're stealing that, aren't you?" said Quinn pointing toward the adamant orb.

"Look, kids. Get out of the way, or you'll wish you've never been born." threatened Darius.

"Wait." said Tyron as he walked up to the two boys. He scrutinized Ryo, scanning his clothes and face, then he looked at Quinn. He glanced back at the violently flashing adamant orb, and began to chuckle.

"I can't believe it." he said. "I cracked this case wide open." The other three scouters looked at Tyron with confusion. He turned to face Ryo and Quinn. "You two are coming with us."

"Well, what if we say no." said Quinn.

Tyron let out a sigh. "Entei, come on out." he said as a large quadruped, dog like pokemon appeared.

"Entei, one of the guardians of Johto. His element is fire. But why is he all dark?" asked Ryo.

"Ah, I'm impressed. You know your mythology." said Tyron.

"Ryo, he's a bad person. We have to fight him!" yelled Quinn. "Salamence, come on out!" shouted Quinn as the dragon pokemon appeared.

"Gyarados, I choose you!" yelled Ryo as the large water serpent pokemon appeared.

"For kids, you two have pretty strong pokemon." commented Frederick.

"Gyarados, use aqua tail!" shouted Ryo.

"Salamence, dragon rush!" shouted Quinn.

The two pokemon leaped in to hit Entei, but Entei was very fast. He leaped over Gyarados' aqua tail and dodged Salamence's dragon rush.

"Use Stone Edge." commanded Tyron. Large, jagged rocks flew out of the ground and struck both Salamence and Gyarados hard, knocking them to the ground rendering both of them unable to fight. Quinn stood there, shocked that Salamence was defeated in one hit.

"Now, if you two won't come with us. Entei will incinerate both of you." threatened Tyron. Ryo and Quinn didn't have a choice. They yielded and they were tied up. They were brought out of the woods and shoved into the back seat of their car, where Axel was waiting for them.

"I see you brought some hostages." said Axel. He clearly knew the two boys, but he pretended that he didn't. Ryo was about to say something when he saw Axel, but Quinn kicked him in the foot, telling him to refrain from doing so. As the four scouters got into the car, they saw the many police cars turning onto their street.

"They spotted us! Axel, hurry and step on it!" yelled Tyron.

"Yes sir." said Axel sarcastically as he started the car and sped away from the police.

Back at city plaza, Hazel and Dan were looking for Ryo. That was when Cynthia and Lance showed up. "Cynthia!" called out Hazel as she ran up to her.

"Oh, Hazel, it's you from the competition." said Cynthia.

"Do you know what happened at the Hearthome Theatre?" asked Hazel.

"Sadly, yes. I saw the place and it was dreadful. Do you know where those guys are off to?" asked Cynthia.

"I don't know. But Dan and I are looking for Quinn and Ryo. They disappeared." said Hazel.

"I'll help you look for them." said Lance. "Salamence, come on out!" His Salamence appeared in the air. "Jump on his back and we'll all search from the air. Hazel, Dan, and Cynthia climbed onto Salamence's back as they flew up into the night sky.

"Lance, over there! The police found the perpetrators!" yelled Cynthia, pointing toward the road chase down below. Salamence dived down lower as they followed the chase from the air.

Back in the car, Ryo and Quinn were held captive. "They're gaining on us." said Shelly. "We have to do something."

"I got this! You all go on without me!" said Darius as he opened the car door and leaped out. "Conkeldurr, show them what you're made of!" shouted Darius as he summoned him. The Conkeldurr planted his feet firmly on the ground and using the pillars he was holding, he stopped all the police cars from following. He knocked many of the cars into the air and using blunt force, stopped the incoming ones. All the officers got out of the car and began shooting at them. Conkeldurr protected Darius as he hid behind him.

"Well, at least he was able to stop the police from chasing us." said Frederick as the six of them drove off to the edge of the city.

The police were able to subdue Darius and capture him. Conkeldurr eventually could not keep fending off the police. He was tied down by the wrist and brought to Hearthome's police department.

Hazel was too distracted by the commotion when Darius leaped out of the car to manually fight the police officers. They had lost track of where the car with the scouters went. Hazel pulled out her phone and began dialing someone.

Back at the car, Tyron saw his phone ringing, and picked up. "Hello, Tyron speaking." he said.

"This is Hazel. I know you were behind all this." she accused.

Tyron couldn't help but begin to smirk. "Why do you accuse me of such acts? What made you think that?" he asked.

"When Jessica and I were running to see what happened, you were not at your station at the front deck. If you followed Mr. Peterson's orders, you would have stayed at that area. You were involved and I know it. You never had any intention to guard that orb." said Hazel.

"Good deduction, Hazel. But you'll never find us. Plus, we have two hostages. And it will be in your interest to leave us be."

"Who are your hostages?" asked Hazel. She began to dread, hoping it wasn't anyone she knew.

He turned to look at the boys. "Hey, what are your names?" asked Tyron. The two boys answered him.

"I have two boys named Ryo and Quinn." he said to Hazel.

Hazel almost dropped her phone. She hung up immediately. "Cynthia! The attackers have Ryo and Quinn as hostages!" she said.

"How do we find them?" asked Dan.

"We can't. It's impossible after we lost track of them." said Lance. "However, we do have one of their men under custody. He can always give us information."

Hazel was very close to being pushed past her limits. She was planning on doing whatever it takes to save Ryo and Quinn from them. After that, she'll fulfill her own desires.


	14. Chapter 14: Hazel's Battle

Lance commanded Salamence to land in front of the Hearthome City Police Department. Hazel rushed into the building to get a good look at the scouter they were able to imprison.

"Sorry, you can't enter without authorization." said an officer, blocking Hazel from walking through the double doors to reach the prison cells.

"It's okay. She's with me." said Cynthia, as she followed Hazel. "We need to talk to that man." The officer allowed them to go in. Lance and Dan waited outside. The officer brought them to a room at the end of the corridor. Inside was the scouter by the name of Darius, but he was tied up and he could not use his pokeballs.

"Ah, Cynthia, the champion of the region." said Darius facetiously. "How about you untie me and we can battle it out, see if you are really worthy of that title." he challenged.

"Do I look foolish to you?" asked Cynthia. "I know you'll try to run away. Now tell me, where are the rest of your people. We know there are five of you."

"Like I'm going to tell you." said Darius.

"I'm not going to lie about the punishments you and your "friends" will receive once you are caught. You murdered many innocent lives tonight, and that is something I cannot sugar-coat." said Cynthia sternly.

"Cynthia, can I have a moment alone with him?" asked Hazel.

"Oh, sure. Be careful." said Cynthia hesitantly as she and the officer walked out of the room. Hazel stepped closer to Darius.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Darius.

"Maybe this will jog your memory." she said as she showed her necklace to him. Darius recognized the design on the necklace, for he was quite surprised.

"You are from Celtic Town, that village who practically worshipped the legendaries. Yes, I remember you. You were a baby back then, weren't you." he said.

"So you do remember killing all those innocent people from my village?" asked Hazel.

"I have to say, it was all for the Lustrous orb. And I remember your parents, cowering in fear, protecting you from us."

"What are you talking about?" asked Hazel.

"I was the scouter that killed your parents. I drove a knife through both of their skulls. I wouldn't have killed them if they just handed over the orb, but they were too stubborn." said Darius.

Hazel eyes burned with anger. "You killed my parents." she repeated. "I will make you pay!" she shouted as she pulled took out a pokeball and summoned Rhyperior.

"Rhyperior, kill this man!" shouted Hazel.

"Stop!" yelled Cynthia as she reentered the room. "Hazel, we need him. He can give us valuable information on where the scouters are and where they are keeping Quinn and Ryo. Just calm down."

Hazel withdrew Rhyperior. "Fine. Let's first find Ryo and Quinn." she said.

"Hey, Cynthia and Hazel. Can we talk to you two for a second." asked Lance as he poked his head through the door. The two of them followed him out back to the front room of the police department.

"We don't need to beat the words out of that guy. Some townsfolk informed us that those scouters headed to the north side of the city. Using the information, we have a higher chance of finding them." said Dan.

"But, that is still very inefficient and vague. The area to the north of Hearthome is quite large. How can we be sure that we will find them by tonight. If we don't soon, who knows what they will do to those two boys." said Cynthia.

Meanwhile, back at Darius' cell. The police officer was watching over him, making sure he wasn't planning on doing anything funny. His pokeballs were locked in a vault, so he was not able to reach them. He had a plan in mind though.

"Ow!" he shouted as he fell off his chair, hitting the floor.

"What are you up to?" asked the officer as he walked over to pull him back onto his chair. Big mistake. Using the strength in his abdomen, he hooked his tied legs around the officer, tripping her. She fell hard onto the ground, and without wasting a second, Darius jumped on top of the officer's body, crushing her under his weight.

"You scream, I'll kill you right here." threatened Darius. The officer complied and didn't scream. "Now, untie my hands." The officer had no choice but to untie him, as she was in no condition to fight back. When Darius' hands were free, he reached for her waist and grabbed her gun. He pointed the gun at her head. "Now, untie my feet." he said.

After his body was completely free, he pulled the officer up and forced her to open the vault with his pokeballs. Darius collected all of his pokemon. "Sorry, miss. But you understand I have to do this." he said. With that, he slammed the officer's head onto the wall, making her fall to the ground unconscious. "Now, time to break out."

As Lance, Hazel, Cynthia, and Dan were discussing a plan to find the other scouters, a loud explosion gathered their attention. They all ran back to find that Darius had escaped and there was a large hole in the ceiling. Darius has flown away into the night sky on his aerodactyl.

"Shit! We have to chase after him!" yelled Lance. He immediately summoned Salamence. You guys stay here. I'm going to follow after him.

"No! I'm coming with you!" said Hazel as she hopped onto Salamence.

"No! You can't. It's too dangerous!" said Lance.

"I'm sorry, Lance. But my mind is set." said Hazel. Lance saw the resolve in her eyes. He had no choice but to bring the girl with him. They flew off into the night sky to chase after Darius.

The four scouters have reached their destination. It was an abandoned warehouse at the edge of Hearthome City. The place was completely desolate, so no one was around.

"What is this place?" asked Quinn.

"None of your business, kid." said Frederick.

"We'll be waiting here for Darius, and then we'll take our leave to the dark lord." said Axel.

"Let's hurry up and get inside, before somebody sees us." urged Tyron as they entered the warehouse. Inside, Axel sat down on the ground, relaxing his legs. Shelly lounged on a large crate and Frederick lied straight on a beam.

"So, what were you two boys doing in the woods behind Hearthome Theatre?" asked Tyron.

"We were trying to get in through the back." said Ryo.

"I know of your intention to get into that building. I'm asking what was your purpose?"

"We have a friend in there, and we wanted to meet her." said Quinn.

"I'm sorry to say this, but your friend is dead. We killed everyone at the auction. If what you say is true, your friend did not make it out alive." said Tyron blatantly.

"No! Hazel's not dead. I know she isn't!" yelled Ryo.

"Hazel?" asked Tyron. He remembered her to be that fellow security guard that caught on to him. "You say that your friend was Hazel?" he began to laugh maniacally. This was perfect for him. Since these boys were close to him, Hazel would definitely not pull anything big.

"Why did you capture us?" asked Quinn.

Tyron peered down at the boys. "You really want to know?" he asked. "Let me show you something." he said as he told Frederick to hand over the adamant orb. He placed the orb in front of the two boys. Its glow was very powerful.

"As you can see. This orb is acting unusual, can you guess why?" asked Tyron.

"Dialga is close." said Quinn.

"Ah, yes. How did you know that?" he asked.

"I read about these ancient stones. I know about all the mythical creatures, and this stone belongs to Dialga." said Quinn.

Tyron turned to Ryo. "You have been awfully quiet. Let me ask you, do you happen to know what aura is."

"It's life energy. All living things have different auras." said Ryo.

"Correct, and this stone is glowing because it is detecting large amounts of Dialga's aura. But wait, we don't see him around here do we?" asked Tyron. Frederick and Shelly began to stand up, as they realized where Tyron was going.

"I can think of two possibilities. Either you two have seen Dialga and are keeping it a secret, or one of you is Dialga!" said Tyron.

"I've seen Dialga!" said Ryo. Quinn was shocked to hear Ryo say that. He knew it wasn't true. "He appeared on Iron Island a month ago. But he fled when Lugia came." said Ryo. "So if you are sensing his aura on us, it is probably from then." Quinn couldn't help but wonder why Ryo was lying about that.

Tyron remembered that time when the dark lord had sent Lugia to find the source of the aura. "Interesting, I never knew that traces of aura could last that long on another's body." said Tyron suspiciously. Ryo looked down at the ground guiltily. "But, I suppose it is not as crazy as the theory that one of you is Dialga, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt. However, I will still be taking you to the dark lord. Now, both of you rest up. We'll be heading to Stark Mountain when Darius arrives." said Tyron

Lance and Hazel were closing on Darius and his aerodactyl. All of a sudden, aerodactyl flew down onto the ground and was hidden behind large rocks. Salamence followed after him, commanding Salamence to fly low.

"Use stone edge!" shouted Darius. Jagged rocks flew up towards the two of them. It was a critical hit, and Salamence fell to the ground unconscious. Hazel and Lance fell to the ground as well. Hazel hit the rock floor with an impact, feeling the air almost getting knocked out of her. Thank god they were flying very close to the ground. She was able to get up and went to see where Lance had landed. She found that Lance with a head wound. He hit a rock on his fall and was also unconscious.

"Lance!" yelled Hazel.

"Looks like it's just you and me now, girl." said Darius. Hazel turned around to see the big guy approaching her. She took a quick look at her surroundings and realized that the both of them had landed in a rocky terrain outside of Hearthome. There was no sign of life for miles. It was just Hazel and Darius. Hazel pulled out her pokeball.

"I'll gladly fight you." said Hazel confidently.

"Big mistake. I won't go easy on you." said Darius as he summoned his Conkeldurr. His Conkeldurr slammed his fists together, showing that he was pumped for battle.

"Scizor, I choose you." said Hazel as the Scizor appeared in front of her.

"A bug steel vs fighting type?" asked Darius. "That's an interesting match up."

"Scizor, use metal claw!" shouted Hazel. Scizor ran up for the attack.

"Conkeldurr, block it and use hammer arm!" shouted Darius. Conkeldurr, using his brute strength, blocked Scizor's metal claw, and then instantaneously came down with the hammer fist, knocking Scizor back. The hammer first barely phased scizor.

"Is that the best you got?" challenged Hazel.

Darius was becoming irritated. "You don't understand anything little girl. Conkeldurr was just warming up. He was only using 25 percent strength. I guess now, Conkeldurr will use 50 percent. Go for a Dynamic Punch!" shouted Darius. Conkeldurr let out a ferocious growl as he leaped towards Scizor.

"Night Slash." said Hazel. When Conkeldurr went to strike scizor, he vanished right into thin air.

"What?!" exclaimed Darius. As Conkeldurr was confused where scizor went, Scizor reappeared behind Conkeldurr, striking him in the back, sending him flying and crashing into a large rock. Hazel was relentless, she wasn't going to give him anytime to think.

"Aerial ace!" shouted Hazel. Scizor lunged toward Conkeldurr as he was still recovering from the previous blow and struck him right in the chest. It was a critical hit, however, he was still able to fight. Darius was getting annoyed.

"Use Hammer arm again!" shouted Darius, but as Conkeldurr swung, Scizor had disappeared again. He had already dodged and escaped to a safe distance. "Damn, that scizor is very fast on his feet." muttered Darius to himself. "Conkeldurr, use stone edge!" shouted Darius. Conkeldurr sent jagged rocks flying towards Scizor. Scizor dodged everyone one of the rocks with ease. As he saw the last one coming, he swiftly grabbed the stone and with great power, launched it back at Conkeldurr, hitting him just to spite him.

"Why, you…..Conkeldurr, end this with Super Power!" shouted Darius.

"Too slow." said Hazel.

"Huh?" went Darius, clueless as Scizor pounced forward and use Giga impact on the charging Conkeldurr. Conkeldurr fell to the ground, unable to fight anymore.

"Any other pokemon you want to use?" asked Hazel.

Darius return Conkeldurr to his pokeball. "I hoped I didn't have to use him here. The dark lord will be angry." he said as he took out another pokeball. "Groudon! Come out, now!" he shouted. Hazel stared in shock as he she saw a large fifteen feet tall beast appear on the terrain. It was a massive, bipedal, dinosaur-like creature covered in red, segmented plates of thick skin that looked like armor.

"What can you do now?!" laughed Darius. "Groudon, kill her and her pokemon!"

Groudon used fire blast. He sent the large wave of fire toward the two of them. Scizor saw the danger and pushed Hazel out of range. The fire blast nearly missed Hazel and Scizor was consumed by the fire.

"Scizor!" yelled Hazel as she saw him disappear in the blast. As all the smoke subsided, she saw that Scizor had fainted on the ground. Hazel quickly returned him to his pokeball. "Torterra, I choose you!" shouted Hazel. The large tortoise pokemon appeared, ready to protect Hazel. "Torterra, use Frenzy plant!"

"Fire blast, again!" shouted Darius. As groudon sent another fire blast toward Torterra, the heat from the fire burned up the vines from his attack. The fire then consumed Torterra. After the fire subsided, Torterra collapsed to the ground.

"No, Torterra!" shouted Hazel as she knelt down on the ground. She summoned him back into his pokeball.

"Who's pokemon are dropping like flies now?" taunted Darius. "I told you not to mess with me, now you'll die a very painful death." he said as Groudon slowly approached Hazel. Hazel was filled with complete dread. She knew none of her pokemon had the power to stop this legendary beast. She let her arms fall down to her side. It seems that she was about to give up.

But then, Hazel remembered why she was here. She remembered the legendaries and that they needed to be saved. She remembered her village, and the people who were killed at the Hearthome Theatre. As she slowly remembered the things that fueled her fire, her resolve began to build. She stared into the eyes of the corrupted Groudon. She knew that the only way to save all the legendaries, including Groudon, was to take him out first.

Hazel got back onto her feet, and then something strange happened. All Hazel had was pure resolve, and she was pushed to her limits, backed into a corner with nothing else to do. Red energy began seeping out from her right arm. Darius noticed the difference in her aura, especially the one that surrounded her right arm.

"What are you doing?" demanded Darius. Hazel wasn't quite sure what was going on either. She stared down at her arm and remembered what Brandon had said to her the other day. Slowly, her skin began turning red, and then it began morphing. Darius stared in shock at what was happening. He never seen anything like it. Now he recognized the aura shrouding her right arm. It was Groudon's aura, but it was emanating from her body.

Hazel's arm had completely transformed. It didn't look human anymore. Rather, it look exactly like Groudon's arm, but smaller to fit Hazel's build.

"What kind of magic is this?" asked Darius, as ambiguity took the better of him. Hazel looked down at her transformed arm. She also recognized that it was groudon's exactly. But why did her arm transform. Hazel didn't have time to think about that. She turned toward Groudon and aimed her transformed arm toward Groudon.

Darius finally understood what happened. Her arm had became a pokemon's arm. Specifically, Groudon's. However, Darius was still oblivious to how. He saw that Hazel's "groudon" arm had began to glow yellow. She was charging Solar Beam. Because Groudon could learn Solar Beam, and since Hazel had obtained an arm just like Groudon's, she herself was able to use the move. "Wait! Stop, what are you planning to do!" yelled Darius.

"I'm going to save Groudon from hurting anyone else!" shouted Hazel. With that, she shot an amplified version of Solar Beam. The thick yellow beam blasted Groudon right in the chest sending him into the air, despite his massive body. It was a critical hit. Groudon landed on his back and the legendary was knocked out cold.

Darius stared in shock at his secret weapon. Groudon has been defeated, and he had nothing else to defend himself from Hazel, who was leaking bloodlust. "Wait!" pleaded Darius. However, Hazel was not taking any of it. Using her unaffected left arm, she summoned Rhyperior. Rhyperior dug underground and appeared behind Darius, grabbing onto his arms and legs, holding him in place.

"Let me go!" yelled Darius as he struggled to free himself, but his muscles did not compare to the inhuman strength Hazel's Rhyperior possessed. Hazel walked up to Darius. It was at this moment that Darius had felt fear for the first time. It was always he who caused fear to others as he raided villages and killed with the other scouters. But now, watching Hazel and her intense aura approach him, the tables had turned.

Hazel was now face to face with Darius. Darius stared at her with anger, but Hazel looked rather calm, unusually calm. "Tell me where you are keeping the boys." demanded Hazel.

"If I tell you, will you let me go?" asked Darius.

"Yes." said Hazel.

Darius sighed. "They are in an abandoned warehouse at the North side of Hearthome, down the path from the windmill."

"Thank you for that information, Darius." said Hazel as she used her left hand to take out her cell phone. She called Cynthia, informing her of the Scouters whereabouts. Cynthia was now heading towards the warehouse. "The police will be capturing the other scouters." said Hazel.

"I doubt they will be captured. You underestimate their intelligence." said Darius. Hazel stared coldly back at him. "Hey, I told you where those boys are, now tell your Rhyperior to let go!" shouted Darius.

"I lied." said Hazel. "I want to you to tell me more information."

Darius was now truly angry. "You are scum, going back on your word…."

"Where is the dark lord hiding." demanded Hazel.

Darius put his head down. Whatever he would do, he was loyal to the dark lord. He would never reveal his lare. Hazel was quite impatient and was not taking the mindgames. Mercilessly, she leaned forward, cocking the shoulder with Groudon's arm and clenching the claws, launched the arm into Darius's stomach for a blunt force attack, similar to a punch. Darius yelled in pain as he began to spit out some blood.

"Where is the dark lord hiding." demanded Hazel again.

"I won't tell you." said Darius, as he choked the words out of his mouth. Hazel leaned in with another punch, striking Darius in the arm, utterly breaking it. The snap of his bones breaking rang through the night sky. Darius screamed in pain, and it hurt much more than the punch to the stomach.

"Where is the dark lord." said Hazel again.

"I don't help people who are liars." said Darius. Hazel's expression darkened. She had now became annoyed. Without holding back, she threw punch after punch with the Groudon arm she had. She kept on hitting Darius, surprised that he was not giving in to the pain. A strike to the leg, strike to the chest, other arm, and abdomen. Blood had now splattered all over the rocks around them and around Hazel's arms and face.

Rhyperior began to feel uncomfortable as he saw how cruel Hazel was being. After Hazel finished her last punch, she took a step back. "Why?" she began. "Seeing you people disgust me. You kill innocent lives and treat the innocent legendaries as slaves, all for what?!" she shouted. "What do you plan to gain from them?! Why is it so wrong to let the legendaries be free and to stop all this madness! Why must you go around the different regions, asserting your dominance and killing so many!"

Darius gave one more look at Hazel, and it was a look of pity. "You don't understand the dark lord." he said. Hazel had had enough. She leaned in for another attack, but instead of clenching Groudon's fists, she released it, revealing the sharp claws. She dug the claws into Darius' chest, ultimately wounding his heart. Darius let out another yell of pain, but then it was all over. Rhyperior released Darius as he fell to the ground. He hit the rock floor and he was dead.

Hazel stood there for quite a while, contemplating on what she had just done. She had killed one of the scouters. Now there were just four to go.

"AAAAh!" yelled Hazel from the severe pain as her right arm began burning up. The groudon-like arm that she had began morphing back into her old arm, however, it wasn't how she had wanted it back. As her arm reappeared, it hurt like hell, no, worse. Her arm had become black and hard. She couldn't move it at all, yet, it caused her so much pain. Hazel couldn't stop screaming. Rhyperior knelt down, next to her concerned.

Lance finally woke up from his fall and heard the shouting from Hazel. She ran over to find her crippled arm and the dead body of Darius laying in a pool of blood.

"What happened?!" asked Lance.

"My arm!" cried Hazel as she held the black stump of a limb. Hazel soon passed out from the pain, and Lance didn't know what to do. He carried Hazel back onto Salamence's back(who had also woken) as well as Darius' dead body, and flew back toward Hearthome City. He had so many questions for Hazel when they got to the hospital.

The police and Cynthia were now getting close to the abandoned warehouse.

"What's taking Darius so long." complained Shelly.

"It seems that Darius might have been captured, or even worse, killed." said Frederick.

"We gave him enough time to return." said Tyron. "Looks like we have to accept that he's dead. Now, we need to plan accordingly."

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you for following my story. I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review on how the story is so far.


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